Re: A Baltic Summary


<randy.mcdonald@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1183061047.318550.56290@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Jun 27, 10:53 pm, vkarla...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Jun 27, 10:03 am, "santak...@xxxxxxxxx" <santak...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Jun 27, 8:59 am, vienalga_...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H8TEVO1dxQ

Interesting. That's what happens when big bullies interfere in their
neighbour's affairs.

Those who are inclined to self-righteous posturing should remember
that if there had been no Hitler-Stalin pact and all the subsequent
Russian-German manoeuvring, there would have been no political/
military killings of any sort in the Baltics during the whole of
WWII. In other words, it would have been like Sweden.

In fact, had Hitler and Stalin been nice guys, there would have been
no WWII at all.

Of course, if your grandma had balls, she would be your grandpa.

And if Latvian, Lithuanain and Estonian men had balls, cooperation and
democracies, instead of dictatorships, they would have been like
Finland: never conquered.

Balls? Finland, at least, had a reasonably defensible frontier and
relatively large pools of manpower. An Estonia without such a
defensible frontier and only a million people wasn't in nearly as
advantageous a position. As for Lithuania and Latvia, all that can be
said is that being surrounded by three Great Powers (Germany, the
Soviet Union, Poland) left them in a rather indefensible position in
any case.

Cooperation? Might a pan-Baltic alliance have been able to stand up to
Stalin and Hitler? Finland's advantage lay in the fact that the
countries to its west were the friendly and non-aggressive democracies
of Norway and Sweden. The Baltic States, again, adjoined Great Powers
of varying degrees of aggressiveness.

Democracies? Like that saved Czechoslovakia. Western governments
generally still recognized the Baltic governments-in-exile throughout
the Cold War despite their origination in non-democratic regimes, and
these were still seen as more legitimate than anthing Moscow might
install.

What could the Baltic States have done, with foreknowledge? Who knows?
I'm not sure that anything more than the fine details could have
changed.

Later,
Randy

They could have gotten yet more destruction
and yet more dead inhabitants.

Best - - Henry


.

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