In 1968, the historian Robert Conquest published The Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Thirties, in which he argued that Stalin was responsible for far more deaths than previously believed. His estimates were criticised by some who thought he had overstated the numbers but, after the fall of the Soviet Union, new information confirmed them to be broadly correct. As Conquest prepared to publish a revised version of his account, his friend Kingsley Amis advised him what to call it. “I Told You So, You F***ing Fools”.
It is tempting to make a similar comment to those who are supportive of Ukraine and who nonetheless backed Donald Trump in the presidential election. This was always a minority view, but still vigorously articulated by Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Jacob Rees-Mogg, among others. However much others pointed out that Trump would abandon the Ukrainians, they argued – regardless of his rhetoric – that in the end he would stand by them, that he would not want to be seen as weak, and that it would be the Russians who would be forced to make unpalatable concessions.
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