Now we are told that Russia’s invasion last weekend proves the improvidence of this policy: The United States should have helped Georgia to understand that it lies in Russia’s “sphere of influence,” beyond the reach of American help. At first blush, that may sound like common sense. What is Georgia to us, after all, far away and without natural resources? And yet, where would the logic carry us? Poland, too, used to be in Moscow’s “sphere”—and Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, and on and on. Should they, too, bow to Vladimir Putin? Why not Finland, while we’re at it? You can quickly begin to see the reemergence of a world that would be neither in America’s interest nor much to Americans’ liking. If a democratically elected Ukraine chooses not to join NATO—and Ukrainians are divided on the question—NATO will not force itself on Ukraine. But if Ukrainians—or Georgians, Armenians or anyone else—recoil at Russia’s authoritarian model and choose to associate with the West, should the United States refrain from “egging them on”? Since the days of the Soviet Union, when the United States never abandoned the cause of “captive nations,” American policy has been that independent nations should be free to rule themselves and shape their future. How, and how effectively, the United States can support those aspirations inevitably will vary from case to case and from time to time, and supporting those aspirations certainly won’t always involve military force. But for the United States to counsel a “realistic” acceptance of vassal status to any nation would mark a radical departure from past principles and practices.