“Poor Neville Chamberlain believed he could trust Hitler. He was wrong. But I don’t think I am wrong about Stalin.”
For those trapped behind the Iron Curtain a mere five years later, the sad reality was that Winston Churchill was wrong about Stalin—a mistake which cost tens of millions their lives and hundreds of millions their freedom.
Here in America, the Yalta Conference, which we observe the 80th anniversary of this week, is taught to students—if it is taught at all—as a vital meeting between the “Big Three” of Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt, in which the final strategy for the defeat of Nazi Germany was decided and post-war lines were drawn.
At the conference, Stalin offered assurances of free and fair elections in the lands that the Soviet Union liberated. Roosevelt and Churchill trusted those assurances.
They were so very wrong to do so.
It is abundantly clear that Stalin, who had committed a heinous act of aggression a scant six years prior when he invaded Poland at the behest of Hitler, never intended to keep those promises. Communist governments were set up almost immediately where the Soviet Union pushed out Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan. In the aftermath of World War II, the Soviet Union’s territory grew substantially—either directly through land taken or indirectly from a host of satellite Soviet Socialist Republics not just in Europe, but in Asia as well.
That’s why, throughout Eastern Europe, the Yalta Conference is not viewed as a week of grand strategy and high diplomacy—instead, it’s viewed, as my Czech grandmother puts it, as “the day that the West sold us into slavery.”
And yet, as we remember this black mark on the West’s record of fighting for freedom, we can take a very important lesson:
Socialists lie.
That lesson is especially important today as President Donald Trump enters his breakneck pace of negotiations across the world—whether with the shameless socialist prime minster of Canada, the unabashed communist president of Mexico, the brutal revanchist president of Russia, or one of the many other dozens of opponents he will face in the coming weeks and months.
Socialists lie.
They offer assurances and concessions. Guarantees and compromises. Promises and settlements. And yet, none can be taken at face value—and few are worth the paper they’re printed on.
Socialists lie.
Stalin promised FDR and Churchill that he would play fair, that the occupation of former German territory would be brief, and that elections would come quickly, would be free, and would be conducted fairly. On March 1, 1945, Roosevelt told Congress, “I come from the Crimea with a firm belief that we have made a start on the road to a world of peace.”
And yet, even as FDR told Congress this, Soviet forces in Poland were executing their erstwhile allies in the Polish resistance and crushing any opposition, public or private. Even as FDR and Churchill reported to their respective governments that the end of war was near and peace was soon to come, Stalin was ordering the deaths of thousands, bringing about his brutal regime throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
President Trump has won the first volley of negotiations with Mexico and Canada. The talks are in progress, and he has opened up channels with Russia, China, and others. Throughout these talks, President Trump, Secretary of State Rubio, and the dozens of attending officials and diplomats must keep in mind the raw fact that socialists lie.
In the short lived—for now—tariff war, in the negotiations to end hostilities in Ukraine, in the ongoing myriads of disputes with China, we must remember not to take the leaders of these nations at their word. China has advanced its technology by leaps and bounds by stealing trade secrets from Americans, Mexican elites have grown wealthy off of the illicit drug trade and human trafficking, and Russia will continue to be as belligerent as it always has been whether Ukraine is allowed to join NATO or not.
These actors, and those like them, will do anything to perpetuate the status quo and advance their own interests. They will stop at nothing to continue to enjoy the fruits of their illicit activities and authoritarian regimes, whether it be losing face in public, taking a hit in short term losses, or temporarily pausing their plans.
We cannot rest on our laurels and relax after the early victories that President Trump has delivered. He promised us that we would grow tired of winning—but if we allow ourselves to tire out too soon, then we will find our victories short-lived and our losses accumulating.