"The biggest since the Congress of Vienna" is already certain to become the enduring cliché about the Helsinki Conference. The glittering Vienna assembly of world leaders, who met in what was then Europe's most magnificent city after Paris, was far more resplendent than this week's Helsinki meeting promises to be. There are, however, many compelling, if superficial resemblances. In their own way both events can be seen as attempts to legitimize postwar balances of force in Europethe one in the wake of the devastating Napoleonic Wars, the other a long-delayed sequel to the...
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