David, I agree. I have always felt sympathy for those small countries stuck between wolves and cast aside like an old can in world politics. And people wonder why they dislike us so much.

I had a teacher that was 100% Polish for my Wold History class at a community college. He was a US Army WWII vet, both parents were immigrants in the 20's. He told us a story he heard before the war about a Polish farmer that found a magic lamp. When granted three wishes the farmer asked for the Chinese to come and invade Poland, then go home! This was the same wish for number 2 and 3! When the genie asked why in the world would you want the Chinese to invade Poland three times, and go home every time he replied. They would have to cross Russia SIX times. Ouch! I think this joke is at least as old as the Mongols and their campaigns into Eastern Europe, but it shows how the Polish people felt about the Russians.

Stalin offered military help to the Czechs in 1938, which would have meant the Red Army marching across Poland since the USSR and Czechoslovakia had no common border. You can imagine what the result of that would have been.

David