DEAR EDITOR:

In a syndicated column, the editor of the National Review recently warned readers of this newspaper to “Beware (of) Aggrieved Empires” — that is, empires like China and Russia, who consider they were wronged by history and now find themselves as our military and political boogymen.

Perhaps the recent empires of Germany and Japan of World War II fame also deserve some consideration as aggrieved empires because they both lost in humiliating defeat to the combined allied efforts in both European and Pacific theaters. It is the height of irony today that these past efforts actually included both Russia (vs. Hitler’s 3rd Reich) and China (vs. Emperor Hirohito) and the U.S. on the same side! Whoops!

How did it happen that these former enemies of Germany and Japan 75 years ago, could find themselves as steadfast allies of the U.S.-led Western alliance of democracies including NATO today?

It might be in some way related to the way the losers of WW II were treated by the victorious power in the aftermath of war that touched so many families. The Marshall Plan led to the reconstruction of Germany, and what might be termed the MacArthur Plan led to the development of the Japanese auto industry in Japan. There were no spiking of the football or victory dances here.

So what? One ponders what might have been if the victorious power in the Cold War in 1990 had chosen a less bellicose stance than to bury Russia? Perhaps we would not be witness to another horror of war being played out on the Ukrainian stage, with us all staring at WW III as a very real outcome. Such lessons of history we forget at our own peril, and those of coming generations.

HOWARD METTEE

Beaver Township