In January 1943, Winston Churchill was stunned when FDR announced at Casablanca that the allies would seek “unconditional surrender” from the Axis powers. Churchill would later privately remark that Roosevelt’s demand, which the president blurted out in a press conference, would help drive the enemy into more desperate resistance. In fact, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels immediately exploited FDR’s demand to exhort the German people into more war fanaticism. “If our Western enemies tell us,” Goebbels commented, “we won’t deal with you, our only aim is to destroy you… how can any German, whether he likes it or not, do anything but fight on with all his strength?”

In the Ukraine conflict, the Biden administration is steadily rolling out its own version of “unconditional surrender” diplomacy against Moscow, guaranteed to harden Russia’s military and people for a longer war.