As President Donald Trump sits down with Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson today, it will become clear if he is serious about trying to end this brutal war in Ukraine.

Will he look to the leadership role the United States played in 1995 to persuade the leaders of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia to lay down their arms and forge a peace agreement as a model? Or will he channel Neville Chamberlain and capitulate to Russia’s demands that Ukraine give up territory and forgo ever joining NATO, in exchange for vacuous assurances that Putin has no further ambitions in Europe? Only the first path has a chance of producing the result that Trump desires and Ukraine deserves. The second path hinges on a promise as empty as the one Adolph Hitler gave the British Prime Minister in 1938. 

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It was 30 years ago this summer that the United States realized it had little choice but to step in and try to stop a war that threatened European security and stability—and by extension U.S. interests—after UN and European troops failed to halt Serbian aggression against Bosnia and avert 100,000 deaths.

Led by Richard Holbrooke with support from President Bill Clinton, Washington secured the agreement of each warring party to fundamental principles that would form the basis for peace talks. Later that fall, the three leaders of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia sat down with U.S. negotiators at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio to begin talks. After........

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