Donald Trump has made no secret of his aspiration for a Nobel Peace Prize—and he might get it, possibly sharing the stage with Vladimir Putin. But if he accepts any of Putin’s conditions for ending the war, he might win it not for securing peace, but for surrendering. It would not be the first time America received a Nobel Peace Prize for losing a war. Henry Kissinger was awarded one—alongside Vietnamese communist leader Lê Đức Thọ, who had just defeated the United States in Vietnam. To America’s greater shame, the victor refused to accept it.
The war’s outcome was clear: America lost to communism, to North Vietnam, and above all, to the Soviet Union. Vietnam was united under a repressive communist regime. It took decades for America to recover from that humiliation.
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Now we risk repeating the same mistake in Ukraine. Today, surrendering Ukrainian territory, lifting sanctions against Putin, or halting aid to Ukraine would be the same kind of capitulation. Putin cannot win this war militarily—he is exhausted and ready to give up unless the United States hands him victory. And that’s exactly what some are urging: surrender territory, lift sanctions, call it “peace.” It’s not peace. It’s capitulation.
Donald Trump repeats that this is Biden’s war. It’s not. This is America’s war. It is a war waged by the totalitarian bloc of Russia, with the assistance of China, Iran, and North Korea—nations that care nothing for Ukraine itself but see in this war an opportunity to weaken their common enemy: the United States. Ukraine is the battlefield. Ukrainians are dying in the tens of thousands. But America is the ultimate target, as Russian officials have openly said. If Putin wins, Ukraine will lose its freedom, but America will also suffer a major strategic defeat.
This war might not have started under Trump, but if he gives up now, it will be his defeat. In 1939, Winston Churchill didn’t shrug off Hitler’s aggression in Europe as “Chamberlain’s war.” He fought until German Nazism was destroyed—a victory for the entire free world. Putin is today’s Hitler—reviving Nazism as a state ideology, attacking his neighbors, and making Ukraine his main victim.
Handing any Ukrainian land to him would be like delivering South Vietnam to the communists—a betrayal of a people who would then face repression, prison camps, and the destruction of their freedoms. America bears responsibility for what happens next, just as it did in Southeast Asia.
At this moment, an unconditional ceasefire could be the best solution. Ukraine has agreed to it, and Putin must accept it without gains. When Trump gave him an ultimatum—stop bombing by August 8 or face sanctions—Putin ignored it. The deadline is gone. The sanctions must come.
No land. No stopping military aid. No lifting sanctions. Not until Russia withdraws its troops from all of Ukraine’s territory, releases all political prisoners, and pays reparations.
That’s how you win. That’s how you make peace—for Ukraine, for America, and for the free world. That’s how you crush Putin’s Nazism before it spreads.