The recent trip by President Zelenskyy to the White House was not a success. If you watch the meeting you do wonder if the whole thing was a set up. Just how many times a day is Zelenskyy supposed to say thank you? Must he grovel for help to resist the Russian invasion and hold out for a peace settlement which is both just and lasting? Trump and, more especially, Vance looked like low grade bully boys but they call the shots, they have the weapons and the money Ukraine needs.

To understand the American position more sympathetically you have to go to Washington DC. To visit Arlington Cemetery where the national reverence for those who lost their lives in the service of their country is on display in a way we just do not see now in the U.K.

If you visit the large scale and very moving memorials - right in the centre of the city - to Americans killed in faraway wars you start to understand what America has done, not always perfectly, to uphold liberty around the globe.

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How Putin's 'traditional values' have won over the American right

Around 50,000 American service personnel lost their lives in combat in Europe in World War One. Americans didn’t need to be there........

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