TAKING DRED SCOTT INTERNATIONAL:

Why shouldn't we apologize for Yalta? (Jonah Goldberg, May 11, 2005, Townhall)

The conference took place in the Crimean city of Yalta in February 1945. The war in Europe was winding down and America didn't yet have the atomic bomb. At the conference, America and Britain conceded to a host of Stalin's demands, including accepting the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe and the forced repatriation of all soldiers, refugees and other escapees of the Soviet Gulag.

This second set of concessions is usually left out of the debate over Yalta because it was so indefensible. The Allies understood that they were sentencing hundreds of thousands of men (and quite a few women and children) to death and misery. Many of these refugees went to extraordinary lengths to end the war in British and American custody only to be forcibly - i.e., at gunpoint - returned to the Soviets for liquidation. Many killed themselves and their families rather than go back. Shame on us all.

Democrats always were for returning fugitive slaves and Republicans opposed.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 11, 2005 9:43 AM