By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on February 25, 2025
An Editorial Opinion
Between 1770 and 1870, the U.S. government and Native American tribes signed and ratified 374 treaties. All of these treaties were broken by the "white men" who ran the U.S. government. None was broken by a Native American tribe.
Freed black slaves in America were promised “40 acres and a mule” in Special Field Order 15, which was issued by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 16, 1865. This promise turned out to be false after President Andrew Johnson rescinded the Order on September 12, 1865.
On December 5, 1994, America promised Ukraine in writing that we would defend that country from invaders if Ukraine would give up its nuclear weapons. This promise is set forth in the so-called Budapest Memorandum, which was signed by the United States, Russia, United Kingdom of Great Britian and Northern Ireland, and Ukraine.
To its detriment, Ukraine believed that America’s “word was its bond.” Accordingly, Ukraine surrendered its nuclear weapons to Russia for decommissioning. In retrospect, Ukrainian reliance on America for its national defense was a huge mistake.
Today, Ukrainians are being slaughtered by Vladimir Putin’s missiles and drones, Russian soldiers on the ground in Ukriane, and North Korean soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
Inside President Donald Trump’s Sellout of Ukraine
On Monday, the U.S. joined Russia, North Korea, Hungary, Israel, Belarus, and 11 other nations in voting against a U.N. resolution that condemned Russia for its unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The U.N. resolution passed despite U.S. opposition.
In a departure from reality, President Donald Trump now claims (with no supporting evidence) that Ukraine started the ongoing war with Russia. Anybody with walking-around sense knows that Trump's statement is a bold face lie. The war started with Russia's televised invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Trump’s “brilliant” idea for ending the Ukriane-Russia war is to surrender Ukraine to Putin. In doing so, Trump is completely ignoring the U.S.’s mandatory obligation under the Budapest Memorandum to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty.
To date, Donald Trump’s second-term foreign diplomacy has consisted of bullying America’s allies and appeasing its enemies, particularly Russia. Frankly, Trump does a better job of consorting with America’s adversaries than comforting its friends.
With respect to Trump’s sellout of Ukraine, Alnur Mussayev, former head of Kazakhstan’s security service, who rose up the ranks of the Soviet KGB, claims Moscow began grooming Donald Trump as a Russian asset in 1987 under pseudonym “Krasnov."
In “American Kompromat,” a 2021 book by Craig Unger, former KGB officer Yuri Shvets also claimed that Trump had been recruited by Moscow in the 1980s. “Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset… and proved so willing to parrot anti-Western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow,” said Shvets.
Judging by Its Actions, America’s Word is No Good
How many times does the American government have to break its word before heads of state around the world know that its word is no good? When does America honor its word?
Native Americans learned that the “white man’s” word was no good when all 374 signed and ratified treaties were broken by the U.S. government.
African Americans have been waiting since 1865 to get their promised “40 acres and a mule.” Meanwhile, from 1862 to 1986, white peasants who were openly recruited from Europe to the U.S. were awarded 160 acres of free land (that was forcefully taken from Native Americans) per applicant under the Homestead Act of 1862.
Today, Ukrainians realize that the U.S. commitment to Ukraine's national security, as set forth in the Budapest Memorandum, may turn into another broken American promise.