Yalta and the Death of the ‘Good War’
by James Bovard
FDR’s complicity in Stalin’s post-WWII bloodletting started a trend of lies and hypocrisy in U.S. foreign policy.
Yalta summit in February 1945 with (from left to right) Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. (public domain)
On September 1, US Vice President Mike Pence visited Poland to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II in Europe as guests of Polish President Andrzej Duda. President Donald Trump himself planned to go but postponed his visit to be on hand when Hurricane Dorian made landfall in Florida. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not been invited.
In other words, even after 80 years, fools never learn.
The inter-war period of Europe was not one of burgeoning democracies formed from the ashes of the First World War, but rather, central and Europe were countries that were overwhelmingly far-right dictatorship.
These are just some examples:
HUNGARY: In the interwar years, Hungary was ruled by an ultra-reactionary government most prominently by Prime Minister Gyula Gömbös.
LATVIA: Latvian dictator Kārlis Ulmanis ruled with an iron far-right fist throughout the interwar years.
One of my favourite American dissidents has always been and remains Frank Zappa. Zappa defies categorisation in terms of group allegiance, but as an individual, his views were remarkably coherent.
Zappa started his professional musical career in 1950s California, but before one thinks of a kind of proto-Beach Boy, Zappa’s California was the barren Mojave Desert (pre shopping mall days). He eventually made it to Los Angeles where he became to the hippy movement what Voltaire was to the French Enlightenment.
