Florida governor and likely presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is working hard to dismantle education as we know it in schools and universities in Florida, censoring specific texts as well as targeting which history should and should not be taught in schools. In keeping with this alarming disregard and elimination of our own past, DeSantis is willfully forgetting a policy that many historians agree was a major cause of World War II: Appeasement. After World War I, Hitler came to power in Germany and set about expanding German territory, annexing Austria and part of Czechoslovkia. England and France yielded these concessions to appease Hitler, hoping to avoid conflict, to keep the peace. Hitler was not appeased, war ensued. Fast forward to 2023, Putin is attacking Ukraine, and Ukraine is resisting, calling out to the Western democracies to help to defend Ukraine from Putin and Russia. DeSantis has made it clear that he would not “prioritize intervention in an escalating foreign war,” that he would prioritize “peace” over defending against Putin. That is weakness. That is appeasement. That is music to Putin’s ears. If we abandon Ukraine in an attempt to appease an unreasonable and clearly unappeasable Putin, this conflict will become much greater and much more dangerous than a “territorial dispute.” Putin will not stop there. If we truly value our country’s democratic ideals (and DeSantis’ words and actions indicate that he does not) it is imperative that we protect other democracies that are under attack from Putin’s dreams of expansion. From festering “territorial disputes,” world wars grow. DeSantis is counting on our lack of memory and understanding of our history to get away with appeasing Putin. The less we remember of our past, the more easily DeSantis can condemn us to repeat it.