As Donald Trump proceeds down a path to abandon Ukraine, I am reminded of the words of President John F. Kennedy spoken to a very young teenager in his 1961 Inaugural Address. “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

Though young and naive, I was nonetheless very aware of a Great War fought by a vast alliance that had ended barely 15 years previously. President Kennedy, my father, the fathers of most of my boyhood friends, and millions more men and women had helped defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Within a decade my friends and I (but not our current President) would be serving either in a regional conflict in Southeast Asia or in the much broader Cold War against the Soviet Union, all with the intent to preserve freedom. Will we defend our democratic principles as fiercely and courageously as Ukraine has hers? I fear that with the current administration’s abandonment of truth (in favor of power and greed) and friendships (our worldwide alliances), the age of American exceptionalism may end.

John Goegel

Canterbury