Worse than Yalta? Really?

Robin Wright of the New Yorker dubbed the Helsinki summit the worst such meeting between Russian and American leaders. The event left New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to write, “Donald Trump is either an asset of Russian intelligence or really enjoys playing one on TV.” Former CIA director John Brennan called Trump’s performance “nothing short of treasonous.”

If only a member of the president’s entourage departed the summit for Moscow to receive official honors for his service to Russia, then perhaps Donald Trump’s critics might view him in a more favorable light. This actually happened at the conclusion of the Yalta Summit, when Franklin Roosevelt’s advisor Alger Hiss traveled to Moscow. There, his Russian masters decorated him…

Hiss, one of just three Americans to accompany the secretary of state to Moscow after Yalta, was the figure codenamed “ALES.” The word “NEIGHBOURS” meant GRU, Russian military intelligence.

This strangely does not besmirch the reputation of Franklin Roosevelt. Historians consistently rank him as among America’s three greatest presidents. Many of the Democrats lambasting Trump regard Roosevelt as the greatest president.

What happened at Yalta proved far more consequential than anything that comes out of the Helsinki conference. Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill gave their imprimatur to the Russians controlling Poland after the war. Ditto for East Germany. Did Trump’s critics forget Roosevelt’s kid-glove treatment of Joseph Stalin when evaluating Trump’s interactions with Vladimir Putin?