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Bush: Baltics betrayed by transfer to Soviet control
CNN.com ^ | May 8, 2005

Posted on 05/08/2005 8:40:41 AM PDT by lizol

Bush: Baltics betrayed by transfer to Soviet control President on four-nation trip to commemorate end of WWII

Sunday, May 8, 2005 Posted: 4:29 AM EDT (0829 GMT)

RIGA, Latvia (CNN) -- President Bush, in a speech to the Latvian people on Saturday, called three Baltic nations' transfer to Soviet control after World War II '"one of the greatest wrongs of history."

"The Baltic countries have seen one of the most dramatic transformations in modern history, from captive nations to NATO allies and E.U. [European Union] members in little more than a decade," Bush said.

He was in Riga, Latvia, speaking at a press conference with Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Lithuanian President Valdus Adamkus and Estonian President Arnold Ruutel, after meeting with the three leaders.

Bush referred to the 1945 conference at Yalta, often cited as the beginning of the Cold War, and acknowledged the United States' role in it.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt participated in the conference, along with Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and FDR later faced criticism for what critics saw as giving Eastern Europe away to Stalin.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: baltics; bush; easterneurope; estonia; latvia; lithuania; russiavisit; veday; wwii; yalta

1 posted on 05/08/2005 8:40:42 AM PDT by lizol
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To: gitmogrunt; gatorbait; wagglebee; njwoman; lump in the melting pot; XR7; goldensky; ...
Eastern European ping list


FRmail me to be added or removed from this Eastern European ping list

2 posted on 05/08/2005 8:41:04 AM PDT by lizol
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To: lizol
The Kremlin has expressed concern about Bush's visits to Latvia and Georgia, which the president will also visit on this trip, because of Moscow's strained relationships with its former satellites.

Russian officials also have objected to Bush's use of the word occupation in reference to the fate of the Baltics.

Hence revealing their true colors even further. The primary reason for Russia's "strained relationship" with Latvia has to do with the Russians who still live within Latvia's borders, who were sent there by the Communist government to dilute the strength of the local population. What does Putin think, that the Baltic states invited these Russians there?

3 posted on 05/08/2005 8:52:26 AM PDT by inquest (FTAA delenda est)
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To: inquest
"What does Putin think, that the Baltic states invited these Russians there?"
Well, given the current demographic situation in Russia he'd be better served by taking those settlers back in. Mark Steyn's article [posted www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399019/posts] makes this very point, in the beginning.
4 posted on 05/08/2005 9:15:23 AM PDT by GSlob
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To: lizol

This country got suckered by that P.T. Barnum of politics, Franklin D. Roosevelt. We turned a great con man into an idol. For the tens of millions of people who suffered as a result of his incompetence in dealing with Stalin, he will live on as an eternal disaster. And his legacy lives on in the vast empty-headedness of the Democratic Party.

In comparsion, we can only thank God for men like President Reagan.


5 posted on 05/08/2005 9:16:03 AM PDT by Winston7000 (Near Chicago)
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To: Winston7000

FDR and the Derms lied to the American people about FDR's health during the 44 election. It's not really sure is FDR was compos mentos during the Yalta meeting..he wasn't speaking to his wife at the time, so who knows who was really calling the shots..Stalin had a great many double agents inside the administration....We may never realize how lucky we are that some in the Dem party forced Wallace off the ticket.


6 posted on 05/08/2005 9:21:34 AM PDT by ken5050 (Ann Coulter needs to have kids ASAP to pass on her gene pool..any volunteers?)
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To: inquest; GSlob; lizol
Well, Putin is a hypocrite. He is blaming Latvia and Estonia for that how they treat Russian minorities and on the other side he sold his compatriots in Turkmenistan in exchange for long term contract for cheap Turkmen gas.

TURKMENISTAN: Focus on the Russian minority
7 posted on 05/08/2005 10:18:23 AM PDT by Lukasz
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To: Lukasz

Given his demograhics on the home front, he'd be better served by taking the settlers back in. The beginning part of recent Mark Steyn's article (freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399019/posts) deals with this very thing.


8 posted on 05/08/2005 10:29:39 AM PDT by GSlob
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To: GSlob

demographics, not demograhics. Missed a letter.


9 posted on 05/08/2005 10:30:41 AM PDT by GSlob
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To: Winston7000; ken5050
Roosevelt lied
The Baltics cried
10 posted on 05/08/2005 10:32:42 AM PDT by Enterprise (Abortion and "euthanasia" - the twin destroyers of the Democrat Party.)
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To: Enterprise

So did the rest of Eastern Eu countries.


11 posted on 05/08/2005 11:40:33 AM PDT by Leo Carpathian (FReeeePeee!)
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To: GSlob
Given his demograhics on the home front, he'd be better served by taking the settlers back in. The beginning part of recent Mark Steyn's article (freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399019/posts) deals with this very thing.

Maybe some of those Russians from Caucasus and Central Asia would like to back to Russia. But I doubt that those for example from Latvia are so keen to do it. Whatever they are saying now, I think that Latvia is far better country to live in than Russia under Putin. In Latvia sooner or later they will get more rights and they have some interesting perspective. On other side in Russia I don’t see any perspectives at least for few next years and we must remember than today’s Latvia is much more advanced country in many aspects of life, politically, economically etc.

Are you lived in Soviet Union?
12 posted on 05/08/2005 11:53:17 AM PDT by Lukasz
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To: Lukasz
"Are you lived in Soviet Union?" You probably mean "Have you lived in Soviet Union?" I am a former refugee from that very vampiria (the word sounds similar to "empire"="imperia", but is both more precise and more figurative), so - yes, I have lived (was born and grew up) there before getting the ef out of the place - which, looking back, I consider the best decision of my entire life.
13 posted on 05/08/2005 12:00:16 PM PDT by GSlob
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To: Winston7000; ken5050

Truer words were never typed, fellas. Concerning the end of WWII and the soviet takeover of half of Europe, I was astonished to hear GW cutting through the pile of baloney that has accumulated over the past 60 years, especially the results of Roosevelt's little arrangement with Uncle Joe. FDR's administration was rotten with communists and the man seemed to have more fear of Winston Churchill than he did a certified totalitarian and mass murderer. If Roosevelt had listened to Churchill and his plans to "strangle the Soviet infant in its crib" postwar Europe would have been a much happier place. But let's face it, FDR would have hung a red star from the Capitol dome if he had the chance, and his party was and still is ridiculously fond of Lenin and Co. Look at the traitorous Sen. Christopher Dodd in my own benighted state. By the way, I stopped by my Post Office the other day and bought a book of stamps with FDR's picture on them. They keep falling off the envelopes when I try to mail them, though. For some reason I keep spitting on the wrong side of the stamp!!! nyuk nyuk nyuk...


14 posted on 05/08/2005 12:24:04 PM PDT by infidel dog (nearer my God to thee....)
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To: ken5050
There was a lot of opposition at the Democratic convention in 1940 to FDR's decision to put Wallace on the ticket. In 1944 the party insiders may not have expected FDR to die as soon as he did, but they sensed that he might die during a fourth term and were determined not to have Wallace as the next President.

Officially, on July 21, 1940, the governments of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia asked to be admitted to the U.S.S.R. I don't know the details but it certainly wasn't a free choice or the wish of the publics of those three countries--it was certainly coercion, whether Stalin had recently forced them to choose compliant leaders or whether the pre-existing leaders just submitted to overwhelming force. It was part of the spoils granted to Stalin by the Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 1939.

15 posted on 05/08/2005 1:15:07 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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