Conason is Wrong. Again.
Joe Conason reflexively criticizes President Bush's candid remarks on Yalta, opining:
For the President to utter such cheap remarks about Roosevelt (and Churchill, whom he ridiculously imagines to be his model) was unfortunate. For him to utter those remarks on foreign soil, during ceremonies commemorating the end of the war fought so bravely by Roosevelt and Churchill, was unforgivable. ...
There is nothing wrong with criticism of Yalta, or for that matter of Roosevelt, his conduct of the war and his dealings with our wartime allies. Although F.D.R. achieved the status of household deity for many American families, including mine, he was far from perfect.
The implication of the President’s speech in Riga, however, is that the decisions reached at Yalta were morally equivalent to the feeble betrayal at Munich and the dictators’ bargain between Stalin and Hitler. That outrageous comparison reflects neither the realities of February 1945, when the three leaders met at a seaside hotel in the Crimean capital, nor the agreement that emerged.
In other words, it was okay for FDR to condemn Eastern Europe to over 5 decades of Soviet tyrrany and oppression. In my book, Conason's failure to acknowledge that the shadow of the Gulag hung over Yalta deprives his argument of any moral value.
As for Conason's claim that only someone like "noted fabulist Ann Coulter" could have come up with President Bush's remarks, perhaps he would like to explain that to the people of, say, Latvia, whose President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said on Jauary 15th:
In May of this year, Latvia will also be remembering three other important events. On May the 4th, Latvia will commemorate the 15th anniversary of its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union, following fifty years of occupation and oppression.
On May the 8th, Latvia will join Europe in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany. However, unlike the case in Western Europe, the fall of the hated Nazi German empire did not result in my country's liberation. Instead, the three Baltic countries of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania were subject to another brutal occupation by another foreign, totalitarian empire, that of the Soviet Union.
On May the 9th, Latvia and 24 other countries will celebrate the 55th anniversary of the signing of the Schuman Declaration, which gave rise to what is now known as the European Union. These celebrations will be taking place in Moscow, on the same date that Russia traditionally celebrates its victory over Nazi Germany.
For Latvia, the jubilation at the fall of Hitler will be tinged with sorrow at my country's further subjugation at the hands of the Soviet Union and the untold suffering that it imposed on our people as a result of inhuman persecution and mass deportations. But on May the 9th I will be expressing my sympathy to the Russian people as well for their losses and suffering. The Russian people played an important part in ridding Europe of one bloodthirsty tyrant – Hitler. But they, no more than people in Latvia and other countries, did not gain freedom from Stalinist tyranny and from the oppression of totalitarian Communism.
In attending the official events planned in Moscow on May the 9th, I will be extending a hand of friendship and reconciliation to the Russian people, while encouraging the present-day leadership of their country to denounce the crimes committed by the Stalinist in regime Latvia and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe. I believe it the duty of all democratic countries to urge Russia to condemn the crimes that were committed during the Soviet era in the name of communism. Russia must face up and come to honest terms with its history, just as Germany did following the end of the Second World War, and just as my own country is doing today.
Funny, but that sounds an awful lot like Bush's speech to me. So does Vike-Freiberga's May 6th speech anticipating Bush's arrival in Latvia:
In Latvia ... the totalitarian occupation ... of Nazi Germany was immediately replaced by another – that of Stalinist totalitarian communist Soviet Union and was one that lasted a very long time. The day we shall be commemorating does have double significance and by coming to the Baltic States President Bush is, I believe, underscoring this double meaning of these historic events. 60 years ago when the war ended it meant liberation for many, it meant victory for many who could truly rejoiced in it.
But for others it meant slavery, it meant occupation, it meant subjugation, and it meant Stalinist terror. For Latvia the true day of liberation came only with the collapse of the Soviet Union as it did for our neighbours Lithuania and Estonia.
Conason owes both Presidents - Bush and Vike-Freiberga - an apology. In the meanwhile, he has simply once again revealed himself to be a far worse jerk than the people he incessantly bashes.
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