Bush and Putin Take a Spin

Is Yalta something the president should apologize for?

Writes Baker: "Many critics, particularly Republicans, maintain that Roosevelt effectively sold out Eastern Europe at Yalta, while defenders say the conference simply recognized the reality on the ground given that the Red Army already controlled the territory. Others point out that the Yalta agreement included Soviet commitments to free elections in countries like Poland, obligations it broke. That was the view of past presidents, including Ronald Reagan."

Peter Wallsten writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Bush said the agreement sacrificed smaller nations in the interest of stability, a point that he used to justify his agenda of promoting democracy throughout the world, even at great cost."

But Wallsten writes that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking to reporters afterwards, "appeared to back away from that statement. Some had interpreted it as a slight of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who signed the deal.

"'I think he was trying to make clear that nobody doubts the intentions of the American leadership in 1945, which was clearly to end the war and to have free elections in Eastern Europe,' she said.

"'You may remember that the plan was to have free elections in Poland, followed by free elections in the rest of Eastern Europe. It didn't turn out that way, and, unfortunately, people were consigned to a divided Europe.' "

Here is the transcript of Bush's press conference in Latvia with Baltic leaders, and the text of his speech in Latvia.

A Brief Break in the Bubble

Bush also made a stop in the Netherlands and gave a speech to Dutch and U.S. World War II veterans at the Netherlands-American Cemetery and Memorial.

But before that, he met with some Dutch young people.

Peter Wallsten writes in the Los Angeles Times: "At home, President Bush regularly travels the nation for 'conversations' with hand-picked audiences who routinely shower him and his policies with praise. But abroad on Sunday, some youths in Holland had a rare, unscripted opportunity to ask questions that some Americans might want to pose if given the chance.

"Based on the questions asked in the first half-hour, before reporters were ushered from the room, this group of students might not have passed muster at a typical White House event."