Gallery"The United States have never recognized...."
American politicians, officials and journalists keep saying that "the United States have never recognized the incorporation of the Baltic States in the USSR and do not recognize it now." How should one understand such statements? Most of the speakers and writers know the
If the USA really had not recognized the incorporation of the Baltic States, why would it hesitate so long, refusing Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian independence? Something is obviously wrong with the assertions concerning non-recognition.
These assertions are actually not pure lies, but rather "diplomatic" formulations. The undeniable contradictions between public words and actions can be explained as follows:
(a) The deceptive phrase "The United States have never recognized the incorporation of the Baltic States in the USSR" refers to the fact that although President Roosevelt repeatedly recognized the incorporation of the Baltic countries in the Soviet empire, his deals with Stalin were kept secret. In other words: the President has recognized the incorporation, but the United States have not. But how is contradiction possible in a constitutional system as that of the US, where the President acts on behalf of America in determining recognition or non-recognition? The crucial point is that the definite, unmistakable and repeated recognition by President Roosevelt was never officially documented and thus never acquired legal validity. That is a rather fine (and for the Balts favorable) legal point. Washington in effect says: "We do know that the USA at first did not recognize the incorporation of the Baltic States in the USSR, but — speaking in a strictly legal sense — we do not know that the President later repeatedly recognized it." The incorporation has thus never been officially recognized, but since 1941 it has always been accepted. It still is...
Why were not Baltic political refugees ruthlessly delivered to Stalin's henchmen after the end of World War II, as were millions of people of other nationalities? We were saved from forced "repatriation" and the fate of those martyrs only by the timely death of President Roosevelt. The division of the world between Roosevelt and Stalin was a closely guarded secret, a deal successfully concealed until the end of the war. When Harry Truman became President of the United States, the State Department had only one
(b) Even the assertion that "the USA do not now recognize the incorporation of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia," is quite misleading. In the Helsinki Protocols of 1975, the United States solemnly recognized as permanent the existing borders1 of the Soviet Union, which included the incorporated Baltic States.
Nevertheless, Washington's politicians keep issuing statements that America does not recognize their incorporation in the Kremlin's empire. Here we are dealing with two directly contradictory assertions that cannot be reconciled. Only future developments in international politics will determine, which of them is going to prevail. At the present time the relations of the USA with the USSR are consistently following the 1975 guarantee of, and continued support for, the integrity of the empire. The dicta about non-recognition are distributed only domestically for political purposes.
This instance of intentional obfuscation of the Great Allies' policy toward the Baltic States is by no means the first one, as we have seen above. Words and deeds of the Powers have often been contradictory, and the three small countries were repeatedly abandoned to2 the Soviets. There is good reason to worry about the fate of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia even now. "What has happened once, can no longer been considered to be impossible," wrote the famous strategist C.v. Clausewitz.
We must understand the past, because it is still with us.
| 1 | "Frontiers" although widely represented as borders. — Ed. |
| 2 | The original monograph has "by", which we believe in error. — Ed. |
