Russia´s 69th Celebrations of its WWII Victory

“The Soviet people’s iron wills, fearlessness and steadfast courage saved Europe from enslavement,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin. On May 9, celebrating Russia´s victory over Nazi Germany sixty-nine years ago in Red Square,  Putin addressed one of the largest and best organized military parades since the 1991 fall of the Soviet empire.   Then he flew to “liberate” Sevastopol, the Crimean site of the Black Sea Fleet to celebrate there as well. 

 

As to Russia’s victory in WWII, Putin is certainly right when he stated, “… it was our country that bore the brunt of the Nazi attack, met it with heroic resistance, traversed immense hardships, determined the war’s outcome…and liberated the world’s peoples.”   But in mentioning the contribution of “other countries” to the victory, he does not bother to name them.

 

 Of course, we are no better.  In America, we often forget, when we talk about our heroic armed forces landing in Normandy, and thereafter the liberation of Europe, that it could not have happened without the Russians. Yet, crucial to the allied victory was the intelligence provided by the British “Ultra” machine that uncovered German intelligence by breaking the code of  Germany´s “Enigma” device. Thus,   allied commanders learned the movement of German troops and ships and the decisions of their commanders before the battles. America and Britain also delivered essential equipment for the drive of the Red Army towards Berlin, and aided Russia with huge convoys of military aid.   

 

In summary, the West   could not have won without the Russians and they could not have won without us. We have yet to hear this objective assessment on either side. But then, if you visit the war museum in Normandy and Paris in France, you would think Charles de Gaulle singlehandedly won the war.

 

Mr. Putin also stated when he flew to the celebration in Sevastopol, “…I stress today that strict respect for international law, state sovereignty and the independent choice of each people is one of the crucial guarantees for ensuring that the tragedy of World War II never happens again.”

 

We Americans share that sentiment, particularly with respect to international law. But we have a different view of how Mr. Putin is upholding it with his annexation of the Crimea and continuous pressure on the rest of the Ukraine. The threat to world stability now is  that other countries with irredentist claims against their neighbors may follow Russia´s example by  stirring up protests within another country and trying to annex its land.  

 

Meanwhile, we have a new threat to the world, which can eventually bring nuclear holocaust;  Islamist  fundamentalist terrorism and rogue regimes in search of WMD, within a looming arc of instability from Asia through the Middle East to Central Africa. Both the West and Russia, particularly in the Caucasus, are challenged.   Russia and America´s mutual cause in battling Islamist terrorism  may yet be as important to each other as they were in fighting the Nazis of WWII.   One recalls Churchill´s famous, “To win the war I would ally myself with the devil.”

 

To preserve the American-Russian partnership, avoid war, and wisely deal with the Eastern Ukraine, , Mr. Putin should consider another Churchillian quip “… The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.”  

 

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