To the editor,

Did you watch the entire exchange between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Vice President J.D. Vance and President Trump? Don't rely on just a clip from the prime time talking heads or the nightly news. I beg everyone to go online and see the entire exchange. You will see something perhaps you've never seen so clearly before.

Trump begins the exchange by putting Zelenskyy down claiming he has too much hatred for Russian President Putin, but doesn't claim Putin has done anything wrong (like invade Ukraine).
Vance then scolds Zelenskyy for not being grateful to Trump for intervening in the Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations, claiming the Trump administration's diplomacy will work unlike former President Biden's actions.

Only then does Zelenskyy recount the history of Russian incursions into Ukraine from 2014 forward and literally said, "...and now, God bless, President Trump will stop him (Putin)." Zelenskyy concluded, pointing out Ukraine had had negotiations with Putin and had signed a ceasefire treaty in 2019 with Putin that included a gas contract and the promise to exchange prisoners, yet in fact, Putin broke the ceasefire and didn't exchange prisoners. His point: Why trust Putin now? Why did that reasonable question earn the ire of V.P. Vance and President Trump?
As far as performances in front of the media go, the shameful treatment of Zelenskyy ranks right up there with Bill Clinton wagging his finger at the cameras and lying about not being unfaithful to his wife, and Richard Nixon saying, "I'm not a crook."
But that's not even close to the worst of it. From the Berlin airlift of 1948-1949 until the collapse of the Soviet Union, America was anti-communist. During that time, it was a popular Republican slogan to charge Democrats with being "soft on Communism" or being "appeasers" like British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was with Adolf Hitler, hoping that giving up what was then Czechoslovakia (without their having any say in the matter) to Hitler would keep Hitler from making war elsewhere. Former Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy must be rolling over in his grave right about now!
Is President Trump really ignorant of the fact that Russian President Putin was an ex-KGB agent? Can President Trump really have so little respect for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (N.A.T.O) alliance with most of Europe and the fact that it kept the entire world out of World War III for the last 80 years?
Biden should have called Putin's bluff a long time ago and given Ukraine the arms needed to really go after Putin, and not just enough to keep the Ukrainians afloat. But this is far worse.  Trump and Vance practically want to give Putin the keys to the candy store. If the American public doesn't raise a loud shout against this to pressure Congress and the President to change course, history guarantees any settlement with Putin over Ukraine will not be the end of the matter, and we will be fighting another terrible global war sooner or not so much later.

Steve Carlson
Plum City