As President Zelenskyy visits Washington to meet with President Biden and address Congress this evening, it’s of course been noted that today marks 300 days since Russia invaded Ukraine. But the timing of Zelenskyy’s visit is significant in another way: It was 81 years ago tomorrow, on December 22, 1941, that Winston Churchill visited the White House, the first meeting between Churchill and FDR after the U.S. entered World War II following the Pearl Harbor attack. That meeting could be said to mark the beginning of the U.S.’s commitment to security in Europe, a commitment that continues 8 decades later and is manifested in American support for Ukraine’s defense.
And look who sits over the meeting between Zelenskyy and Biden, in the portrait centered over the fireplace in the Oval Office: