OK, I admit that Winston Churchill did not say it about Vladimir Putin. He said it about Adolf Hitler. But the point’s the same.
In the mid-1930s England was asleep. The British were vaguely aware that Nazi Germany presented a threat. But neither they nor their government wanted to believe it, and so they chose largely to ignore it. To ignore the danger presented by a rearmed and obviously aggressive Germany led by a fascistic and obviously aggressive Hitler. Which was when Churchill’s light began brightly to shine. For he foresaw more clearly than did nearly all his contemporaries that Hitler was a menace not just to Paris and Brussels, not just to Prague and Warsaw, but to London.
Though Churchill’s rhetoric went unheeded, he nevertheless reiterated it. In 1938 Churchill delivered a speech in Parliament – “The Threat to Czechoslovakia” – that echoed his previous warnings and that urged Europe to resist the Nazi menace.
But the story of this year is not ended at Czechoslovakia. It is not ended this month. The might behind the German Dictator increases daily, His appetite may grow with eating. The forces of law and freedom have for a long time known nothing but rebuffs, failures and humiliations. Their influence would be immensely increased by any signs of concerted action and initiative ….
I have bolded the line that stands out. That is a deep psychological insight and, to boot, a literary masterstroke. It applies across time and space to bad leaders who, instead of being stopped, are appeased. It applied in 1938 to Adolf Hitler. It applies in 2025 to Vladimir Putin.
It’s so simple a concept. But the idea that unless it is checked bad leadership always gets worse is, apparently, difficult to grasp. Right, Mr. President?