Jan. 23, 2026 Editor, The News-Gazette: In the fall of 1972, I began my studies in Bologna, Italy at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS). This was at the height of the Cold War, four years after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. That spring we took a train to Brussels where we met with officials at NATO and the European Union. These were our friends and allies.
Many of our fathers served in World War II. They witnessed in 1948 the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization made up of the U.S., Canada, and the countries of Western Europe, including Demark. That organization is now under threat by President Trump.
During the Cold War, the U.S. had 17 bases on Greenland with as many as 10,000 soldiers. A treaty of 1951 gives us the right to have those bases again. Yet, our president states that we must own Greenland to keep it out of the hands of the Russians and the Chinese.
Now President Trump says that because Norway did not give him the Nobel Peace Prize, he no longer believes in peace and may not use peace to acquire Greenland. And he considers tariffs of an additional 10% on eight Europeans countries and an another 25% in June on countries that oppose his acquisition of Greenland.
At Davos, President Trump withdrew his tariff threat, for the moment anyway. Had he not, the Europeans would have retaliated with tariffs of their own ,reminiscent of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression. He has also ruled out an invasion of Greenland. Despite this, NATO will never be the same. As stated by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at Davos, the global order is not strained but broken. President Trump responded that Canada lives because of the United States. What would my father think? DON HASFURTHER Lexington
