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Russian tanks rumble through Vilnius, even though Lithuania declared its independence a month ago. Prominent congressmen have expressed disappointment in President Bush for not supporting Lithuanian independence more aggressively.
But what's he supposed to do? Lithuania is not Panama, so sending in soldiers is hardly an option. Extending diplomatic recognition to the new government would be a meaningless provocation to Moscow.
The president could complain loudly, but to his credit, George Bush has not. Anything he said in support of Lithuanian independence would be hypocritical.
American history offers the doctrine of
nullification
followed by outright secession, whereby
states declared they were no longer part of the Union.
The first Republican president did not answer secession with negotiation. Abraham Lincoln raised armies; Sherman marched through Georgia and the American doctrine was established that once you're in, you stay in.
But there is a difference. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia did not freely join the Soviet Union in 1940 the way that South Carolina joined the United States in 1788. The three Baltic nations were annexed by Soviet troops in 1940 as a result of the Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact.
However, not even George Bush could argue with a straight face that territory acquired by conquest should be returned. The land I live on was taken by U.S. soldiers in 1846 from Mexico, as were New Mexico, Arizona, California and Nevada.
There were no elections. The Cherokees of Georgia were not consulted about joining the United States, nor were the Sioux, the Comanche, the Cheyenne, the Arapaho, etc.
But perhaps Bush could have a quiet talk with Mikhail Gorbachev and point out that holding the West has meant tremendous federal expenditures for roads, irrigation systems and the like, few of which were good investments. Further, western speculation, mining subsidies and crop overproduction caused several national economic collapses.
Bush could also explain that keeping the South in the Union has meant one thing: generation after generation of cornpone neanderthals in powerful positions, so that even now American schools tread lightly when it comes to literature or real science, lest they offend Strom Thurmond or Jesse Helms.
Gorbachev supposedly wants to improve the Soviet economy and bring his nation into the modern world. If he observes our history, he'll realize that he'll never meet those goals by holding on. Instead, Estonian commissars will hustle pork-barrel dams and expensive timber subsidies while a down-home Latvian deputy demands that Lysenkoism be taught instead of Darwinism.
If Bush could make that dismal prospect clear, then Gorbachev will do the right thing and quickly let go of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia -- like America's conquered regions, they represent little but expense and trouble.
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