You're listening to an airwave media podcast.

Ben Franklin's world is a production of the

Omaha Institute and is sponsored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. and welcome to episode 326 of Ben Franklin's world.

The podcast dedicated to helping you

learn more about how the people and events

of our early American past

have shaped the present day world we live in.

And I'm your host, Liz Kovart.

Just about two months ago, Russia invaded Ukraine,

an Eastern European country with a coastline

along the Black Sea, and a nation that had once been a member of the

Soviet Union. At the time of the Russian invasion, Ukraine was a Democratic republic,

and a nation that was in the process of seeking admission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.

For the last two months, Americans have been thinking about Ukraine.

With Ukrainian sovereignty and democracy under attack, Americans have been wondering, should our government be doing more than placing economic sanctions on Russia?

Should I, as a U.S. military veteran, travel to Ukraine and offer to fight in their army.

And what would official U.S. military involvement in Ukraine mean for the politics of Europe and in our age of nuclear weapons?

While the situation in Ukraine is new and novel, Americans desire to assist other

nations seeking to create and preserve their democracies and republics is not new.

During the 1820s, the Greek Revolution and fight for independence from the Ottoman

Empire had many early Americans considering similar questions to the ones that

we're thinking about today. Maureen Connor Santelli, an associate professor of history

...