Captive Nations Week 2022 – Most Meaningful

Russia has again lived up to its aggressive, murderous reputation – as we have contended all along – and consequently Captive Nations Week 2022 will be most meaningful of all.

Adopted in 1959 during the Cold War, the historic proclamation that recognizes the plight of captive nations of Russian subju
gation has been regarded by some as a relic of bygone days and political beliefs. Others even argued that it should be shelved and forgotten.

Interestingly, though, words in the original document and the annual observations have been thorns in Russians’ eyes as its leaders would periodically insist that Washington should abandon it.

Eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine haven’t been enough to raise the free world’s awareness about Russia’s global threat and the necessity of this annual commemoration. Then on February 24, 2022, Russia launched a no-holds-barred invasion of Ukraine with the goal of not only re-subjugating it but annihilating the country, nation and memory of their existence. This unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia was not unexpected. Since the end of World War Two the west has been apprised of such an eventuality and the original Captive Nations Proclamation implied it. Leaders of the captive nations’ liberation movements warned the free world that Moscow will turn its guns against them.

Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova, replying to George Stephanopoulos of ABC’s This Week, said Ukrainians weren’t surprised by Russia’s invasion. They’ve been anticipating it for 400 years.

The Associated Press reported this week that the Central Intelligence Agency admitted it underestimated President Zelenskyy’s true grit and Ukraine. As its analysts were pondering whether Zelenskyy would be a Churchill or will he run, they concluded that the President of Ukraine wouldn’t stay the course.

“Ultimately, U.S. intelligence agencies underestimated Zelenskyy and Ukraine while overestimating Russia and its president, even as they accurately predicted Vladimir Putin would order an invasion,” the newswire said.

These costly mistakes against Ukraine cannot be repeated. Consequently, the Captive Nations Week Proclamation of 2022 from the White House to American City Halls will be the most meaningful because it could serve as a reminder of the peril posed by Russia. Collectively they will tell future generations what Americans did when Russia invaded Ukraine, and killed and raped Ukrainians, and destroyed the country and historic landmarks. Did they support Ukraine and its total victory over Russia or did it waffle and plead that Ukraine and its supporters shouldn’t humiliate Russia and its fuhrer Putin?

Despite the lack of serious attention to so-called remnants of the Cold War, the annual Captive Nations Week Proclamations based on Public Law 86-90 are important reminders of the ongoing danger posed not only by old and new totalitarian communist regimes and notably their creator Moscow in all of its political colorations up to including today’s Putin-led federation. Russian leaders opposed this proclamation and overtly or quietly had asked successive Administrations to abandon it. None did, though President Richard Nixon, in the midst of his peaceful coexistence policy, delayed issuing the 1971 proclamation that ultimately was devoid of the words Communist, Soviet and Russia.

The third week of July has been traditionally filled with similar proclamations issued by governors and mayors as well as civic commemorations in large and small communities.

For a historical perspective about the Captive Nations Week Proclamation, I’d like to quote from an article by Lee Edwards, chairman and co-founder of the Victims of Communism Foundation, that appeared in the Summer 2020 edition of The Ukrainian Quarterly:

“One man more than any other was responsible for the proclamation and the week – Prof. Lev E. Dobriansky of Georgetown University, longtime president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. Born in November 1918 in New York City of Ukrainian immigrant parents, Dr. Dobriansky attended New York University where he earned a Ph.D. in economics. He taught at Georgetown from 1948 until 1987 during which he founded and directed the Institute on Comparative Economic and Political Systems. He also served as U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas from 1982-86 when the islands were in the front lines in the battle against illegal drug traffic.

“Professor Dobriansky came into political prominence in 1959 when he persuaded Congress and the Eisenhower administration to adopt the Captive Nations Proclamation, which he personally drafted. The Proclamation was a litany of anti-Soviet pro-freedom paragraphs:

“ ‘Whereas since 1918 the imperialistic and aggressive policies of Russian communism have resulted in the creation of a vast empire which poses a dire threat to the security of the United States and of all the free peoples of the world;

“ ‘Whereas the imperialistic policies of Communist Russia have led, through direct and indirect aggression, to the subjugation of the national independence of Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Estonia, White Ruthenia, Rumania, East Germany, Bulgaria, mainland China, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, North Korea, Albania, Idel-Ural, Tibet, Cossackia, Turkestan, North Viet-Nam, and others…

“ ‘Whereas these submerged nations look to the United States as the citadel of human freedom, for leadership in bringing about their liberation and freedom and in restoring to them the enjoyment of their Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist or other religious freedoms and of their individual liberties…

Whereas the desire for liberty and independence by the overwhelming majority of the people of these submerged nations is a powerful deterrent to war and one of the best hopes for a just and lasting peace;

Whereas it is fitting that we clearly manifest to such peoples through an appropriate and official means the historic fact that the people of the United States share with them their aspirations for the recovery of their freedom and independence…’ ”

The late Prof. Lev Dobriansky wrote about the proclamation’s significance in his article, “The Captive Nations Week Resolution Then and Now”:

“Originated as S.J. Resolution 111, passed on July 17, 1959, and signed into Public Law 86-90, the law has remained in force to the present day precisely because of its realistic, conceptual framework and outlook. With ease and real conformation, its dominant concepts relate to these upsurging events. They are: ‘national independence,’ ‘the democratic process,’ ‘inter-dependency of peoples and nations,’ ‘imperialistic and aggressive policies of Russian communism,’ ‘a vast empire,’ ‘threat to the security of the United States and of all the free peoples of the world,’ ‘religious freedoms,’ ‘individual liberties,’ ‘powerful deterrent to war and one of the best hopes for a just and lasting peace.’ Then and now – even more so now and in the future – these concepts have been fully applicable, notwithstanding current hopes and notions about the end of the Cold War, the fading of military threat from the Soviet Russian empire, and secure, sovereign national freedom in Central Europe.”

For its invasion and mass murder of Ukrainians, its war crimes and acts of genocide, Russia deserves the commendation of all peoples of the world, which would serve as an assurance that Moscow won’t repeat bestial crime anywhere.

Undeniably, the Captive Nations Week Proclamation belongs to the category of American documents that should be observed throughout the ages. It should not be watered down by other issues like President Biden did last year. It should serve as a strong denunciation of Russia’s past, present and future aggressions against any freedom-loving country in the world. It should condemn Russia’s merciless invasion and mass murder in Ukraine. It should declare America’s comprehensive military support for Ukraine and urge its allies to do the same. It should unreservedly endorse Ukraine’s sacred mission of defeating Russia.

The Captive Nations Week Proclamation of 2022 will be more meaningful than all of the others.

Memorial Day Thoughts from Bataan to Mariupol

This being Memorial Day weekend I find myself watching one after another old and new war movies on TCM – a favorite hobby of mine.

This morning I watched “They Were Expendable,” the 1945 heroic John Wayne movie about PT boat crews in the Pacific. You of a certain age will fondly remember the movie.

I watched it a couple of times before but I never paid attention to the movie’s reference to Bataan until today.

On April 9, 1942, Major Gen. Edward P. King Jr. surrendered at Bataan, Philippines, — against Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s orders — and 78,000 troops (66,000 Filipinos and 12,000 Americans), the largest contingent of U.S. soldiers ever to surrender, are taken captive by the Japanese. The prisoners were at once led 55 miles from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan peninsula, to San Fernando, on what became known as the Bataan Death March. At least 600 Americans and 5,000 Filipinos died because of the extreme brutality of their Japanese captors, who starved, beat, and kicked them on the way; those who became too weak to walk were bayoneted. Those who survived were taken by rail from San Fernando to POW camps, where another 16,000 Filipinos and at least 1,000 Americans died from disease, mistreatment, and starvation.

In the movie, American sailors in a canteen heard the heart rendering announcement from a San Francisco radio program. It said the following: 

This is tragic news from the Philippines.

The white flag of surrender was hoisted on the bloody heights of Bataan this afternoon.

Thirty-six thousand United States soldiers, hungry, ragged, half-starved shadows, trapped like rats, but dying like men, were finally worn down by 200,000 picked Japanese troops.

Men who fight for an unshakeable faith are more than flesh.

But they're not steel.

Flesh must yield at last.

Endurance melts away. The end must come.

Bataan has fallen.

But the spirit that made it stand as a beacon to all lovers of liberty will never falter.

The white flag was hardly hoisted over Bataan before Jap artillery began slamming away at Corregidor, our last strong point in the Philippines.

The obvious connection with Mariupol was clear as a bell.

After two months, three weeks and five days, the heroic Azov battalion soldiers, lacking food and medicine, tending to the wounded as well as hundreds of civilians were encouraged or ordered to surrender on May 20, 2022. Ukrainian patriots stood their ground and fought to the last man, holed up in the city-sized basement of the Azovstal steel mill. Fighting to the last ounce of blood is part of the Ukrainians’ genetic makeup – remember of cyborgs at the Donetsk airport.

Yuriy Butusov, the editor-in-chief of Censor.NET, in his Facebook page cited a message written by a friend in Mariupol who serves in the Azov Regiment. “Thanks to them, Mariupol will never be a Russian victory. It will never be a victim and a place of Russian power, it is not Kruty. It will always be a city of Ukrainian victory and a symbol of Ukrainian invincible strength.”

Apparently he was not rejecting victory at all costs, even the cost of the defenders’ lives, he was rejecting the concept of defeat, conquest by the Russian invaders. Mariupol is another Ukrainian word in the centuries-long string of wars and battles that reaffirm Ukrainians’ aspiration to live freely, independently, sovereignly, democratically as far away from Russia as possible. It joins similar words and stories in foreign languages that tell the story of victory even in defeat.

“The defenders of Mariupol have long since crossed the line of endurance and sacrifice – they have created new ones, and this is incredible in the 21st century,” Butusov wrote.

President Zelenskyy explained Ukraine wanted to take away the wounded from Mariupol but Russian forces would not let them. “We wanted to take away the wounded. We talked about it being a humanitarian mission. Give us the wounded back,” he said. “We even made plans for Turkey to be a mediator and get the wounded, civilians and the military. They don’t let them out because we understand Russia just wants to shoot them dead.”

Butusov’s friend continued: “I understand. We all understand everything and are ready for anything. In any case, we will not give up.”

“Thanks to them, Mariupol will never be a Russian victory. It will never be a victim and a place of Russian power, it is not Kruty. It will always be a city of Ukrainian victory and a symbol of Ukrainian invincible strength.

“Russia has many weapons, but Ukraine has something that Russians are not capable of – to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their people, to fight for honor, to fight when there is no strength, and only the will allows you to fight no matter what. Mariupol – this word now weighs a lot, explains a lot.

Because its defenders created a new modern epic. Because they create the history of our world. Because they are Ukrainians.”

Now begins the Mariupol Death March. The Russians have taken the wounded and living soldiers and transported them to imprisonment. Based on Russia’s merciless historical behavior and its heinous conduct in this war, it’s a given that imprisonment for them will be worse than fighting and dying in battle against Russian invaders. They’ve already rejected prisoner exchanges in favor of cynically placing the Ukrainian combatants on trial.

The fall of Mariupol, the site of the merciless seven-week-old siege that has reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin, would be Moscow’s biggest victory of the war. But don’t count on it – the spirit that made Mariupol stand as a beacon to all lovers of liberty will never falter.

As after Bataan, when Gen. MacArthur promised that he shall return, so too today, Ukrainian servicemen and women – the whole nation if necessary – will return, vanquish and expel the criminal Russian invaders from all of Ukraine.