Write to letters@thetimes.co.ukSir, I read Max Hastings’s piece with, as ever, admiration for the lucidity with which he expresses his views and the firm moral basis that underpins them (“Stay firm in face of Trump’s divide and rule”, Mar 3). However, there are two significant differences between the planning of Operation Unthinkable in 1945 and the present situation. First, the USSR already had a firm grip on the whole of Poland while Ukraine today is 80 per cent free of Russian subjugation. Second, Ukraine has shown a capacity and will to resist to a degree that Poland, despite heroic efforts, was not in a position to do after September 1939. Gerald WittBournemouthSir, Peacekeeping forces often become a permanent commitment confirming
