Correct phrasing of Ukraine war should not include Chamberlain or Hitler

 Correct phrasing of Ukraine war should not include Chamberlain or Hitler

 

I’m a member of the peace community dialoging with many opposing any settlement in that war short of victory for Ukraine. It’s tiresome to hear frequent references to Trump’s efforts to end the war as if he were the UK’s Neville Chamberlain capitulating to Putin’s Adolph Hitler at Munich.

 

Case in point is Gerald King’s letter ‘The correct phrasing’ in Thursday’s Chicago Tribune, pleading with the Trib to promote King’s view that Trump and Putin are the 21st century’s version of Neville Chamberlain and Adolph Hitler respectively. King closes by claiming “anyone who knows history should be able to anticipate the outcome.

 

King appears oblivious that his ‘anyone’ does not include a single esteemed historian or political scientist. That is because there is no historical or political connection whatsoever between Chamberlain’s 1938 meeting with Hitler at Munich during which there was no ongoing war, and the current war in which Ukraine is approaching military collapse.

 

King implores the Trib to address this issue. If it does, the Trib would be wise to scrub King’s ‘Chamberlain, Hitler’ reference from its discussion.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL