Today is Victory in Europe Day. What have We Learned?

Sixty Four years ago today, the part of the Second World War that was fought in Europe was officially brought to an end when the president of Germany, Admiral Donitz (Hitler's successor) surrendered to the Allies. The war in the Pacific against Japan would continue a while longer. But for the people of Europe, the war that had begun in September of 1939 was finally over on May 8th 1945.

In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to avoid a war between Britain and Germany.

The following is the wording of the statement that Neville Chamberlain waved when he stepped off the plane after the conference in Berlin had ended on 30 September, 1938.

"We, the German Führer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for two countries and for Europe.

"We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.

"We are ... determined to continue our efforts to ... contribute to assure the peace of Europe."

Chamberlain read this statement to a cheering crowd in front of 10 Downing St. and said;

"My good friends this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time."

On September 3rd, 1939, Britain and France went to war with Germany, after Germany invaded Poland.

What can we learn from the lessons of history?

1) Aggressor nations cannot be appeased by simple negotiation. We must always negotiate from a position of strength if we want to win and survive against dictators and aggressive ideologies.

2) Maintaining a strong military is the final solution to aggression after all other political and diplomatic methods have been exhausted.

3) It is naive and dangerous to assume that we can change the minds of heads of state or people of other countries, civilizations, or religeons simply by talking to them and assuming that while we don't understand their reasons and point of view, they will easily see ours and come over to our way of thinking.

Today, we face threats to our nation's security, and the security of our allies on many fronts: Nuclear proliferation, the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue nations is upon us. Radical islamic terorrism is here and growing. We cannot secure our borders. We cannot afford to fight another large war.

But we absolutely cannot afford to appease dictators and rogue nations. History is clear about what happens when we try.