When the year 1938 is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is the Munich Conference, which has become the prime example of appeasement. Adolf Hitler claimed he was protecting ethnic Germans in Czechoslovak’s Sudetenland border area just as Vladimir Putin claims he is protecting ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Both aggressors seized these disputed lands when the Great Powers refused to defend the smaller states. Hitler then moved to take the rest of Czechoslovak in 1939 without a fight, and then later in the year invaded Poland. Unlike the Czechs, the Ukrainians have fought the invasion. Their valiant actions and Russian military failures changed the strategic landscape. The United States and NATO have sent arms of increasing sophistication to the Ukrainians to keep up their defense and deter any expansion of the war into Poland or other countries. History is taking a different, hopefully, better course.
