To the editor:
This letter is in response to an April 10 letter that appeared in The Berkshire Eagle, in which the author, although not a fan of Donald Trump, is giving him credit for at least trying to mend our relationships with Russia and China.
I find it difficult to give Trump credit for almost anything. I was born in Queens, N.Y., on July 9, 1945, which makes me one year older than Trump, and because he is also from Queens, I am familiar with everything he is going to do and say, warts and all. He can NEVER be trusted to tell the truth.
I am a liberal Democrat, but unlike Republicans, who allow Trump to lead them around by the nose, I try to think issues through.
As for complimenting Trump for his “diplomacy” regarding Russia and Ukraine, his reasons need to be questioned. Trump’s history tells me to be suspicious of anything and everything that he does because he is 100 percent transactional.
Envisioning the Riviera of the Middle East in Gaza and eyeing a fertile future for Trump development in Russia that will be financed by Russian oligarchs are surely on Trump‘s mind. As for anticipating that Trump can negotiate a win-win with Xi, or Putin, that is magical thinking. Those leaders are famous for not keeping their word and, therefore, cannot be trusted.
Putin is willing to negotiate with Ukraine but is insisting on absurd conditions. If Putin really wanted peace, he would agree to give up lands he took in exchange for access to Crimea for a port on the Mediterranean Sea and an ironclad agreement that Ukraine will not join NATO. He should also agree to return the Ukrainian children he kidnapped.
Putin sacrificed many thousands of Russian troops in order to wait out the American election, knowing that if Trump won he would side with Putin. Zelensky also knew that if Trump won our election, he would exact vengeance on Zelensky for the quid pro quo conversation that led to one of Trump‘s impeachments.
There was also a question about how we would feel if we were worried about Canada or Mexico, if our neighbors became socialist, or aggressive? We have Cuba 90 miles from us, where Khrushchev was planning to build a missile base in the 1960s, which we confronted, and the Soviet Union backed down. We did finance a disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion for Cuban exiles and refugees. That blunder was never repeated.
Having lost many in my family at Auschwitz, I am wary of a Hitleresque personality. Putin is following Hitler’s playbook. No matter what he agrees to, he still has his eye on other countries that were part of the Soviet Union. I will not be surprised if he says that all he wants is peace in our time. How did that go in 1939?
Trump should not be congratulated for being naïve.
Frank Gunsberg
Great Barrington
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