To the editor:

It is wrong to say that facts are never debatable. They can be misleading if other facts are ignored. Here is how incomplete information can distort the truth:

A few years ago an Associated Press article mislabeled Finland as a “Nazi-friendly” nation during World War II.

As an “ally” of Nazi Germany, Finland took part in its invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Also, swastikas were on Finnish military aircraft.

However, Finland wasn’t a true ally, but a co-belligerant with Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union. The Finns re-occupied land taken in the 1939-1940 Winter War when the Red Army invaded Finland. The USSR was expelled from the League of Nations for that invasion.

The Finnish government publicly rejected Nazism and said it wasn’t at war with Britain or America. Finland also evacuated its Jewish citizens to neutral Sweden to protect them from the Nazis.

The swastika (hakeristi in Finnish, meaning “hooked cross,” like Hakenkreutz in German), was on Finnish military aircraft since 1918. That was before the Nazi party even existed.

The swastika is an ancient Nordic symbol that was on the family crest of the Swedish family that donated airplanes to newly independent Finland in 1918. Swastika emblems were put on British and French military aircraft before they were shipped to Finland during the Winter War.

Liberals, who have dominated the electronic news media for decades, created a false image of John F. Kennedy as an icon of liberalism, even though he said wasn’t a liberal. In fact, JFK despised the liberal branch of his own Democratic Party.

Richard Nixon had faults but was so demonized by the news media that a survey in 1974 rated him the most hated man in history, ahead of Hitler and Stalin. That is absurd.

Robert Kohtala

Chassell