Essay: May 8 Victory Day?

The Cold War began almost as immediately as surrender documents were signed by Nazi Germany. The UK violated the agreement made by the Allies at the Teheran Conference not to accept a separate peace. While the Red Army battled German forces in the streets of Berlin, UK forces accepted a formal signed surrender document from Adolph Hitler's designated successor Adm Doenitz in north Germany on May 8. The same night just before midnight, commander of German forces Gen Jodl surrendered to Soviet forces in the capital of Germany, Berlin. The news was reported to Moscow, which is 3 hours earlier, after 2 AM. So the Soviet's proclaimed May 9 Victory Day.

This inability of "the Allies" to keep agreements and even agree on when World War II ended marked the beginning of the Cold War. Now President Trump by official proclamation declares May 8 "Victory Day". This is highly insulting to Russian families who made the sacrifice and lost family in the war. Trump knows this, or should know this. Unfortunately, it unofficially marks the beginning of Cold War II, and is readily an admission of President Trump's failure to keep his promise to end the NATO proxy war in 24 hours or 100 days. Biden's War, begun by Obama in 2014, is now Trump's war. Bannon was right.

Bottomline: Trump didn't have to make a formal proclamation, but he did anyway. Going forward, the Russians can only interpret this as bad faith out of spite. Between FDR saying "no separate peace" or Papa Bush promising "not one inch east", the Russians have no confidence in Western, UK, or American words, written or oral promises.

Prof. John J. Mearsheimer is an American political scientist and international relations scholar, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He earned his PhD at Cornell University. As of 2025 he teaches at the University of Chicago. Mearsheimer belongs to the realist school of international relations. Prof. Mearsheimer said of President Donald J. Trump's 2025 formal declaration of May 8 as "Victory Day":

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[Trump]'s dead wrong on both World War I and World War II. I won't talk about World War I, but I will talk about World War II where of course he's dead wrong. And also I think he's showing great disrespect to Russia and to the former Soviet Union for the enormous price that they paid in defeating the Wehrmacht in World War II.... [...] The real danger is it just shows disrespect for other people. Number one, I think if you're in Russia today, which is of course the principal remnant state left over from when the Soviet Union collapsed, this is deeply offensive. Just think about the sacrifice that Russia/the Soviet Union played to defeat Nazi Germany. And here you have President Trump disrespecting that great sacrifice, disrespecting this country. But furthermore, when Trump makes comments like that which are so at odds with the historical record, it really cast doubt or doubts on his judgment. It's truly remarkable that he would make such a foolish statement. Someone who is the president of the United States should simply know better. And I know that we've reached the point where we just say "Well this is Donald Trump, and you know he just says a lot of outrageous things". He contradicts himself from one day to another, and it really doesn't matter because it's just Donald Trump and everybody understands that. But I don't believe that's true. I think it says a lot about his judgment. And I think it says a lot about whether you can trust the man because he's saying one thing one day and another thing another day. And much of what he says is simply not true. So if you're a foreign leader, and you're looking at the United States and you're thinking about how to deal with Donald Trump, you have to scratch your head and say "Is he a reliable negotiating partner?" And I think the answer in most cases is no.

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