As has often been said - one judges a potential enemy by capability and not intention. Intention can change overnight.
Why am I reminded of the politics of the 1930s, when a nice chap who guaranteed peace decided that his German speaking peoples in Europe were in need of rescue and convinced the rest of the world that his forays into the Rhinelands, the Sudetenland, and Austria were not a threat to anyone's security. Even the start of war was caused by Hitler suspecting another "Western" climb down after he had liberated the Germanic League of Nations city of Danzig in Poland. This after lots of scrapping of armed forces in the previous few years etc. The "West" was following the policy of "Peace at Any Price" but thank God for Churchill and his ilk who argued (and won) policies for re-armament just before it was too late!