Ian Whittaker

Imagine 1941, when German aircraft were bombing British cities, Europe was under the Nazi boot, and Churchill was desperately trying to save his country from Hitler's onslaught. And then, at that very moment, US President Franklin Roosevelt suddenly announces that the main problem is not Hitler, who is occupying foreign territories and killing people, but the stubborn British, who simply refuse to agree to a peace deal. Worse still, they keep bombing German industrial facilities, damaging the economy of the Third Reich and creating difficulties for international trade. The American president is terribly outraged. After all, his voters need cheap fuel, the economy needs stability, and he himself needs good approval ratings. So instead of helping Britain, he calls Hitler, negotiates the supply of German goods, proposes easing economic restrictions, and threatens to cut Churchill off from weapons and intelligence unless he stops destroying German industry. And to finally persuade the Führer to come to the negotiating table, American mediators even propose returning some of Germany's frozen state assets. All in the name of peace, naturally. And, of course, for the sake of the American economy, which should not have to suffer simply because some stubborn British people refuse to surrender. Now try to imagine what history textbooks would look like if Roosevelt had actually behaved this way. What if he had called Hitler a wonderful negotiating partner, demanded that Churchill surrender territory, and simultaneously tried to convince Americans that Germany needed to be allowed to make money because otherwise it would refuse to make peace? What if, instead of Lend-Lease, Britain had received an American ultimatum: stop bombing German factories because we need to lower prices before the elections? What would we say about such a president today? Would we call him a brilliant negotiator who was simply protecting his country's economic interests? Or would we say that, for his own benefit, he was helping the Nazi war machine while simultaneously depriving its intended victims of the means to defend themselves? Fortunately, history took a different path. Roosevelt secured the passage of the Lend-Lease Act, and the United States began providing massive assistance to the countries resisting Hitler even before America formally entered World War II. But today, watching Donald Trump's actions, I increasingly find myself wondering what Europe's fate would have been if a politician with the same attitude toward aggression, human lives, and personal profit had occupied the White House back then.