{"id":7120,"date":"2014-03-18T14:35:41","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T21:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=7120"},"modified":"2014-03-18T14:35:41","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T21:35:41","slug":"this-is-the-last-territorial-demand-i-have-to-make-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/this-is-the-last-territorial-demand-i-have-to-make-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"‘This Is the Last Territorial Demand I Have to Make in Europe’"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO’s The Corner<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Vladimir Putin all but said the above yesterday, after annexing the Crimea \u2014 and promising to let alone the rest of the Ukraine. If we just insert Ukraine and Russia for Czechoslovakia and Germany, the following speech could easily be Putin\u2019s:<\/p>\n

(Berlin 1938<\/s><\/del>\u00a0Moscow 2014)<\/p>\n

Now I have tried during this time also gradually to bring about good and enduring relations with other nations.<\/em><\/p>\n

We have given guarantees for the States in the West. We have guaranteed to all contiguous neighbors the inviolability of their territory so far as\u00a0Germany<\/s><\/del>\u00a0Russia is concerned.<\/em><\/p>\n

That is not a phrase \u2014 that is our sacred will.<\/em><\/p>\n

We are not interested in breaking peace. We do not want anything from these peoples. It is a fact that these our offers were meeting with increasing acceptance and also growing understanding.<\/em><\/p>\n

Slowly, more and more nations are departing from the idiotic delusion of Geneva; I should like to say, departing not from collective peace obligations but from collective war obligations.<\/em><\/p>\n

They are withdrawing from them and they begin to see problems soberly and are ready for understanding and peace. . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

Bitter as it may be for a few, in the last analysis the interest of the\u00a0German<\/s><\/del>Russian nation stands above all.<\/em><\/p>\n

This interest, however, is: To be able to work in peace.<\/em><\/p>\n

This whole activity, my fellow citizens, is not a phrase that cannot be proved, but instead this activity is demonstrated by facts which no political liar can remove.<\/em><\/p>\n

Two problems remained.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here I had to make a reservation.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ten<\/s><\/del>\u00a0Several million\u00a0of Germans<\/s><\/del>\u00a0Russians found themselves outside the\u00a0Reich<\/s><\/del>\u2019s Russian Federation\u2019s confines in\u00a0two<\/s>\u00a0several large contiguous regions \u2014\u00a0Germans<\/s><\/del>Russians who desired to come back into their homeland. This number of10,000,000<\/s>\u00a0<\/del>several million is not a trifle\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Somewhere, my fellow countrymen, there is a limit \u2014 a limit where yielding must cease, because it would otherwise become a harmful weakness and I would have no right to maintain a place in\u00a0German<\/s><\/del>\u00a0Russian history if I were simply to renounce\u00a010,000,000<\/s><\/del>\u00a0several million without caring about them. I would then have no moral right to be\u00a0Fuehrer<\/s><\/del>\u00a0President of the\u00a0German<\/s><\/del>\u00a0Russian people.<\/em><\/p>\n

I have taken upon myself sufficient sacrifices in the way of renunciations. Here was a limit beyond which I could not go. How right this was has been proven, first by the plebiscite in\u00a0Austria<\/s><\/del>\u00a0the Crimea; in fact, by the entire history of the reunion of\u00a0Austria<\/s><\/del>\u00a0South Ossetia and Crimea with\u00a0the<\/s>\u00a0Reich<\/s><\/del>\u00a0Russia. A glowing confession of faith was pronounced at that time \u2014 a confession such as others certainly had not hoped for.<\/em><\/p>\n

A flaming testimony was given at that time, a declaration such as others surely had not hoped would be given.<\/em><\/p>\n

It was then we saw that for democracies a plebiscite becomes superfluous or even obnoxious as soon as it does not produce results democracies hoped for.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nevertheless this problem was solved to the happiness of the great\u00a0German<\/s><\/del>Russian people, and now we confront the last problem that must and shall be solved.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the last territorial demand I have to make in Europe, but it is a demand on which I will not yield.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am thankful to\u00a0Mr. Chamberlain<\/s>\u00a0<\/del>Mr. Obama for all his trouble and I assured him that the\u00a0German<\/s><\/del>\u00a0Russian people wants nothing but peace, but I also declared that I cannot go beyond the limits of our patience.<\/em><\/p>\n

I further assured him and I repeat here that if this problem is solved, there will be no further territorial problems in Europe for\u00a0Germany<\/s><\/del>\u00a0Russia.<\/em><\/p>\n

And I further assured him that at the moment that\u00a0Czechoslovakia<\/s><\/del>\u00a0Ukraine has solved her other problems, that is, when the\u00a0Czechs<\/s><\/del>\u00a0Ukrainians have reconciled themselves with their other minorities, the\u00a0Czech<\/s><\/del>\u00a0Ukrainian State no longer interests me and that, if you please, I give him the guarantee: We do not want anyCzechs<\/del>\u00a0<\/s>Ukrainians.<\/em><\/p>\n

I now head the procession of my people as first soldier and behind me \u2014 may the world know this \u2014 there now matches a people and a different one than that of1918<\/s><\/del>\u00a01989. . . .\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO’s The Corner\u00a0 Vladimir Putin all but said the above yesterday, after annexing the Crimea \u2014 and promising to let alone the rest of the Ukraine. If we just insert Ukraine and Russia for Czechoslovakia and Germany, the following speech could easily be Putin\u2019s:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[375,99],"tags":[932,455,1050,1083,424],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1QQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11821,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/is-russia-preparing-a-gas-nuclear-option\/","url_meta":{"origin":7120,"position":0},"title":"Is Russia Preparing A Gas Nuclear Option?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory published\u00a0by\u00a0Forbes Vladimir Putin is noted for taking surprise action, which confronts his victims with a fait accompli. 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