EDITORIAL: Bush's Victory Day tour (05/15/05)

EDITORIAL

Bush's Victory Day tour

For Russian President Vladimir Putin, "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century" was the demise of the USSR. For U.S. President George W. Bush, "the captivity of millions in Central and Eastern Europe" within the Soviet empire was "one of the greatest wrongs of history."

These two statements, made at different times in recent weeks by the two leaders, reveal the tricky balancing act that the U.S. president faced as he traveled last week to Latvia, the Netherlands, Russia and Georgia to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. (In fact, the itinerary itself was the source of some controversy, as the Russian president made known his displeasure that his big party in Moscow would be sandwiched between other high-profile events.)

To his credit, President Bush kept on message.

In Latvia, he paid homage to the people of the Baltic states, noting that "The Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian people showed that the love of liberty is stronger than the will of an empire." The victory of the Allies in World War II, he stated, was a paradox, for, though it brought the defeat of Nazism and freedom for millions, "For much of Eastern and Central Europe, victory brought the iron rule of another empire."

The Baltic nations, he said, "kept a long vigil of suffering and hope," adding, "Though you lived in isolation, you were not alone. The United States refused to recognize your occupation by an empire. The flags of free Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania - illegal at home - flew proudly over diplomatic missions in the United States."

Most unexpected were President Bush's references to the Yalta agreement, the ignoble deal among Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin that relegated Eastern Europe to Soviet domination and led to the forced repatriation of thousands to the USSR. "The agreement at Yalta followed in the unjust tradition of Munich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable," Mr. Bush said. He went on to acknowledge that the U.S. was partly to blame for leaving "a continent divided and unstable" and asked: "Had we fought and sacrificed only to achieve the permanent division of Europe into armed camps? Or did the cause of freedom and the rights of nations require more of us?"

It is noteworthy that Mr. Bush made clear U.S. regrets over Yalta, while issuing a not-too-veiled challenge to his host in Moscow to, for his part, address the issue of the Nazi-Soviet pact. But Mr. Putin did not budge. He had defended the pact as a step to "ensure its (the USSR's) interest and its security on its western borders." He bristled at the mere mention of the word "occupation" and said that the Red Army had entered the Baltic states upon invitation, thus resurrecting the old Soviet line. His response to the suggestion that he should repudiate the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was: "We already did it" - a reference to a 1989 decision by the Soviet Parliament - "What, we have to do this every day, every year?" And then there was this telling remark: "We consider this matter closed. ...We must not allow the dead to grab us by our sleeves and prevent us from moving forward."

After President Bush attended the Soviet-style Victory Day celebrations in Moscow and acknowledged the USSR's contributions to defeating Hitler - a most unfortunate gaffe was his reference to 27 million "Russians" (read Soviet citizens) who died in the war - he headed to Georgia. There he praised the Georgian people who had demanded their independence from the USSR 16 years ago but whose protests were crushed by the Soviet army; the Georgians who returned a year later and tore down the statue of Lenin, and then declared independence; and the Georgians who 18 months ago participated in the Rose Revolution "to complete the task you began in 1989."

"Georgia is today both sovereign and free, and a beacon of liberty for this region and the world," the president continued. "The path of freedom you have chosen is not easy, but you will not travel it alone. ... as you build a free and democratic Georgia, the American people will stand with you," he pledged.

Referring to other examples of movements toward freedom, Mr. Bush said: "before there was a purple Revolution in Iraq, or an Orange Revolution in Ukraine, or a Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, there was the Rose Revolution in Georgia. Your courage is inspiring democratic reforms and sending a message that echoes across the world: Freedom will be the future of every nation and every people on Earth."

And thus, President Bush transformed his Victory Day tour into a paean to freedom. As he said in Margraten, in the Netherlands: "There is no power like the power of freedom and no solider as strong as a soldier who fights for that freedom."

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