It’s sad that the Chicago Tribune has no qualms about denying Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia’s inclusion in NATO, especially in view of renascent Russian expansion. Hardly any evidence of Boris Yeltsin’s “reforms” exists, now that Chechnya has been bloodily subdued, with Byelorussia, Georgia and Moldavia already safely in tow.
Your May 14 editorial ridicules a possible strategic link between Warsaw and Chicago and alleges ethnic strife in the remarkably homogeneous Central European republics to make a stronger case against inclusion in NATO. What strategic linkages did Luxembourg or Athens have when they entered NATO?
Your viewpoint closely parallels Roosevelt’s when he signed and delivered Poland to Stalin at the 1943 Teheran conference. After fighting in the fourth largest Allied army in the West, the Poles were consigned, secretly and underhandedly, to a Soviet sphere of control. They were not even included in the Allied victory parade, because it would have rankled Stalin.
Acquiescence to Russian demands, as proven in the past again and again, does not solve any problems for the Western powers. Neither does sacrificing small countries to Russian intimidation and coercion, which is bound to happen as Central European republics become more prosperous and remain unprotected. Does the United States want to repeat mistakes of the past?
