Bret Stephens’ column (Herald, Feb. 22) correctly provided a brief history lesson explaining the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. The focus was the current movement in Germany and other countries to downplay the effects of the horrors inflicted globally by the fascist model of government perpetrated by Adolph Hitler.
As the daughter of a resistance fighter during the four-year occupation of Belgium during World War II, I learned about the impacts on the people in all the occupied countries. Despite the isolationist America First vocal minority in the U.S. in the 1930s, ultimately the war for democracy became our own, through the back door, with the attack on the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor.
If Americans still believe in our exceptionalism, the greatest defenders of democracy in the world, we must remember, study and learn the lessons of history. Beware the allure of autocratic rule. Appeasing dictators delays inevitable conflict. Simple answers to global issues are unrealistic and eventually end in failure and destruction.
Myriam Palmer
Durango
