Sheer abject cowardice on the part of Chamberlain

This nave Prime Minister had allowed himself to be misled by Hitler

Appeasement was a noble attempt to prevent bloodshed The policy was a brilliant feat of diplomacy that prevented a major

European war in 1938 [and, therefore, should NOT have

been abandoned in relation to Poland!]

Appeasement shrewdly postponed war with Germany: by implementing it, Chamberlain was wisely buying Britain some

desperately needed time to RE-ARM, etc.

Key Question 1:

Why Appeasement?

Many reasons have been given for why Britain 'appeased' Hitler in the

1930s. Historians have ascribed every possible motive to Chamberlain,

each of which either damns or praises his policy of appeasement :

Zachweiner,

SMBC,

August 2013

Nowadays, many people criticize Chamberlain for appeasing Hitler. Appeasements prevailing legacy/ lesson is that one does

NOT negotiate with dictators [nor terrorists, for that matter!]

E.g.: George H. Bushs response to Iraqs 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Bush Sr. saw Saddam Hussein as an Arab Hitler whose

aggression against Kuwait, if unchecked, would lead to further

aggression in the Persian Gulf. In announcing the dispatch of US

forces to Saudi Arabia on August 8th, 1990, he declared:

To assume Iraq will not attack again would be unwise and unrealistic. If history teaches us anything, it is that we must

resist aggression or it will destroy our freedoms.

Appeasement does not work. As was the

case in the 1930s, we see in Saddam

Hussein an aggressive dictator threatening

his neighbors.

USAF F-15s and F-16s fly over Kuwaiti oil fires, set by the retreating Iraqi

army during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

In the 1930s, there were some people most notably Winston Churchill who damned Chamberlains policy:

It is a total defeat. Czechoslovakia will be swallowed up by the Nazis. And do not

suppose that this is the end. This is only the

beginning.

-Churchill, speaking about the Munich Agreement, 1938.

But at the time, most people thoroughly agreed with Chamberlain, praised him even:

Give thanks to your God. Your children are safe. Peace is a victory for all mankind. If we must have a

victor, let us choose Mr. Chamberlain.

-The Daily Express, 1938.

Voice in the Wilderness: The Truth About Hitler-article Churchills alarmist profile of Hitler, published in The Strand Magazine in November 1935.

For obvious reasons, we tend to think of the 1930s in terms of the origins of the Second World War. The question we tend to ask, is

whether or not the Western Powers could have done more to avert it,

whether or not the policy of appeasing Japan and Germany was a fatal

blunder that led to war. But this may be to reverse the order of

events; appeasement did not lead to war; it was war, the

numerous acts of aggression that swept the world in the

1930s, that led to

appeasement.

In Defense of Appeasement: a noble attempt to keep the peace?

-Niall Ferguson in

The War of the

World (PBS, 2007)

1. FEAR OF COMMUNISM:

besides the obvious economic

benefits to Britain of a

rejuvenated , trade-friendly

German nation, many British

people hoped that a strong

Germany would redress the

upset traditional Balance of Power [=deterrent to aggression] in Europe & block

the imminent expansion of Soviet Communism!

1941: playing on known fears of

Communism: Nazi Anti-Bolshevik poster,

titled: Europe's Victory is Your Prosperity.

The FIVE most important contemporary reasons for/attitudes toward appeasement, were:

2. DISCREDITING OF THE VERSAILLES SETTLEMENT:

many Britishers agreed with Hitler that the Treaty of Versailles had been unfair and, consequently, felt that his demands & actions were reasonable [e.g. in regards to the demilitarized Rhineland, Britons questioned whether it was, fair to prohibit a major European power from stationing troops in one part of its territory. Most

people in Britain were not prepared to support any military action designed to prevent Hitler from walking into his own back garden (Culpin 226).

1936: GERMANY

REOCCUPIES RHINELAND

German sentries on the Rhine

opposite Coblenz

NOTE: consequently, throughout the 1920s, subsequent British

governments had sought to revise

the Treaty in Germanys favor;Chamberlains policies were not much different from the policies of his predecessors!

E.g.: in his controversial defense of appeasement policy in 1961, English historian A.J.P. Taylor,

claimed that , the real culprits for the international crisis of the 1930s were the peacemakers of 1919,

who had failed to completely eradicate the possibility of a German military revival. Taylor

viewed Chamberlains determined bid to appease German grievances as a very realistic assessment of the failings of the past and a well-meaning attempt

to solve them.

According to Taylor, Munich was a triumph for appeasement because it solved a key German

grievance and at least delayed the outbreak of a

major European war. Indeed, Taylor claims that

war came quickly in 1939 because Chamberlain,

under pressure from his domestic critics, was

forced with some reluctance to ABANDON (!) appeasement (McDonough 78).

3. BRITISH MILITARY

SPREAD TOO THIN:

many people in the United

Kingdom felt that events in

Central- and Eastern

Europe were not Britain's

business; therefore, most

were not prepared to

support any military action

against Germany. Instead,

some wanted Britain to

focus on maintaining her

overseas Empire (and worry

about Imperial Japans

aggressive expansionism

into Asia, for starters!).

In any event, Britain did not have troops to spare to counter

[Hitler]; they were at full stretch

in PALESTINE [suppressing

the Arab Revolt of 1936-39], in

various parts of the British

Empire and particularly in

India (Culpin 226).

NOTE: protecting British interests overseas was deemed to be hard enough without adding Germany as an additional challenge.

Indeed, the [British] army and naval chiefs constantly warned Chamberlain that Britain was not militarily prepared to fight a war

against Germany, Italy and Japan simultaneously and Chamberlain accepted their arguments (McDonough 82). Revisionist historians have suggested that this was another

important reason why Chamberlain adopted appeasement policy.

Palestine, c. 1938: 1st Battalion Irish Guards of the British Army near Nablus

1938: British troops on observation post with rifles, machine-guns & flare-lights

Responsibilities of Empire: pacifying the troubled regions of Palestine

Trouble on the Horizon: a 1938 Japanese propaganda poster for the

Tripartite Pact: "Good friends in three

countries.

And then there was ITALY and Mussolinis empire ambitions to add to

the list of nations to keep an eye on:

4. THE DESIRE TO AVOID ANOTHER WAR & NEGATIVE

IMPACT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION: the majority of the British people wanted peace as opposed to fighting yet another Great War [90% of Britons according to a League of Nations poll!]; rather than spending billions on re-armament, they wanted to see this money spent on fighting the Great Depression instead: domestic socio-economic betterment at home! (Public opinion before 1937 opposed all-out rearmament and wished to avoid war (McDonough 82).

Left-Wing

Support for

Appeasement

Hence, democratically elected British politicians (thus including

Chamberlain!) had no alternative but

to pursue the policy of appeasement

lest they would be voted out of office

in the next general election!

Revisionist scholars regard the latter as yet another important

reason for the policy.London, 1938: Hyde Park Peace Demonstration:a speaker addresses a crowd at a peace rally

At any rate, the British economy did

not [yet] contain

enough skilled

workers to produce

rapid rearmament

without severely

disrupting the fragile

economic recovery

from the great slump [Great Depression](McDonough 82).

NOT UNTIL LATER: 1942: Hawker employees at

work on the production

of Hurricane fighter aircraft at a

factory in Britain

Christian pacifist Dick Sheppard advertising a meeting of

the Peace Pledge Union in February 1937. The Union

recruited more than 100,000 supporters. Sheppards

charismatic personality helped to create a broad absolute

pacifist movement in 1936 and 1937 as fear of war

deepened in Europe.

Focus on Peace: Canon Dick Sheppard

London 1936: Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of

Fascists, is saluted by female & male blackshirts

5. CONSERVATIVE ADMIRATION:

Some right-wing members of the British

upper class as well as the working class

envied German Fascism as a viable & efficient alternative to what they denounced

as their own weak, incompetent, failing and inefficient democratic

system [e.g. in mishandling the Great

Depression!] and approved of Hitler's

policies.Right-Wing

Support for

Appeasement

The Duke of

Windsor and his

American wife,

Wallis Simpson,

meet Hitler in 1937

Olympic Stadium, Berlin, 1938:

Germany vs. England 3-6

Dark Times - the extent of appeasement

policy: players of the English National Soccer

Team instructed by its government to give the

Nazi salute during the German national

anthem before a match in Germany in 1938

1. a) Allowed Hitler to grow stronger;

b) (To some extent) caused the war, by encouraging Hitler to think he could do and get away with-anything with complete impunity.

2. Humiliated Britain & damaged her reputation no country in Central- and/or Eastern Europe would soon trust Britain again; this encouraged Stalin to sign the Non-Aggression Pact in 39.

3. Abandoned millions of people to the Nazis (!)

4. Gave Britain the morale high ground when war came, Britons knew they had done everything possible to keep the peace; it had been an honorable attempt to prevent the deaths of millions of people in another Great War.

5. Was ultimately inconsequential; a different (aggressive) response would not have stopped Hitler either, who was determined to go to war no matter what.

Its significance: 6 Results

of Appeasement

Historians have said that

appeasement:

Poland, 1939: England! This is your doing!

Some historians hold the view that, appeasement abandoned millions of people to the Nazis

Where the Chamberlain-bashers have really got it wrong is when they miss his genuine commitment to Britains victory over Nazi

tyranny. As chancellor, he authorized aerial rearmament in 1934, doubling the strength of the RAF. And in his last budget in 1937 he hitched up income tax to pay for a massive

1,500 million rearmament plan.

-British historian Dominic Sandbrook,

BBC History Magazine, 2008.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few

-Prime Minister Winston Churchill, 1940

6. Appeasement bought Britain time

to RE-ARM.

A Closer Look at

Appeasement in Action:

The Sudeten Crisis

Rally on Heroes' Square in Vienna Hitler Delivers a

Speech on the Day after the

Annexation of Austria (March 15, 1938)

Before 1938, Britain had already condoned Hitlers domestic &

foreign policy steps on a number of

occasions, but it was the events of the

Sudeten crisis which demonstrated

appeasement in action seemingly

trying to buy off Hitler by giving in to his demands, seemingly no matter

his price.

March 11, 1938:

Hitler enters Austria Munich

After Hitler's Anschluss with Austria in March 1938, Czechoslovakia was

widely believed to be his next target: it

seemed the Fhrers obvious, self-evident next step.

The new democratic state of Czechoslovakia was created in 1918, when the vast, multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire was broken up into

smaller nations after losing World War I. The principle that gave

countries such as Czechoslovakia independence was called self-

determination: each nation had the right to its own state within the

area where its people were in the majority.

However, in the case of Czechoslovakia, the borders were drawn along historic rather than ethnic boundaries. While the country was

predominantly Slavic, there were also areas with overwhelmingly

German and Hungarian majorities.

It seemed in many ways a contradiction of that post-war philosophy of self-

determination: 3 million Germans(=23% population of Czechoslovakia!)

lived within its boundaries, yet were

never asked whether they wanted this!

One of these areas a fringe around the western part of the country, mostly populated

by Germans was known as the Sudetenland.

At first, the coexistence of Slavs and Germans in the new republic worked fine. German parties were important power brokers and

participated in almost every coalition government. Hitlers rise to

power, however, led to the growth of Sudeten German nationalist

sentiment.

Soon, 70% of Germans in Czechoslovakia voted for

the Sudeten Nazi Party (!)

1938: flags are out in the small Sudetenland town of Kuschwarda

to show support for the recent takeover by Germany.

Spotlight on the

Sudetenland

Formidable Fortifications

As soon as Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933,

Czechoslovakia grew nervous

about invasion.

Czechoslovakia began constructing a ring of

fortifications along its

mountainous borders (which

were predominantly inhabited

by ethnic Germans; e.g. the

area around Slavonice, which

was part of the Sudetenland):

Iron- reinforced concrete

bunkers were connected by

underground tunnels.

Bunker in the Czech fortification line in the mostly mountainous

Sudetenland (= ideal for military defensive purposes!) This was why

Hitler wanted the region: it would leave Czechoslovakia powerless

before him.

Stachelberg artillery fortress in Bab near Trutnov

(Modern Czech Republic)

In 1938, Hitler set his mind to

taking over the

Sudetenland.

First, Hitler encouraged the

Sudeten Nazis to

demand union

with Germany.

Next, Hitler made plans to invade

(and then

smash!) the

young Republic of

Czechoslovakia.

Hitler's pro-Nazi henchman in the Sudetenland was Konrad Henlein, leader

of the nationalist Sudeten German Party

[SdP]. Henlein was actively engaged in

persuading the Sudeten Germans to loudly

demand unity with Hitler's Germany.

Hitler with Henlein, Leader of the Sudeten-Germans

Throughout the summer of 1938, Nazi agitators in the Sudetenland

had caused political and social

unrest while Nazi Propaganda

Minister Goebbels

propaganda machine waged a

ferocious anti-Czech campaign,

claiming that Sudeten Germans

were being persecuted & abused

by the Czechs.

Hitler and Henlein

September 7,

1938

Hitler instructed Henlein to be a real pain-in the-neck to Czechoslovakia by making ever-increasing

demands on behalf of the Sudeten Germans;

these demands were to be absurd & unreasonable

to the extent that they would be totally,

unacceptable to the Czech government (!)

Henlein

There were bloody riots; the Czech government declared martial law in the Sudetenland, while German newsreels showed

evidence of Czech atrocities against the innocent Sudeten

Germans; Nazi leaders in Czechoslovakia fled to Germany.

Czechoslovak soldiers patrolling the town of Krsn Lpa (German: Schnlinde) in

the Sudeten Region, September, 1938

German soldiers

attending Nuremberg RallyWAR appeared IMMINENT.

This Nuremberg speech of September 12, 1938, precipitated

the final crisis over Czechoslovakia

(Czech troops had been mobilized

against Germany since May of that

year). Hitler again gambled on

Britain and France not being

prepared and/or willing to fight (!)

At the annual Nuremberg Rally in early September, Hitler and Gering both made threatening speeches concerning the so-called

Sudeten Question; both Nazi leaders threatened to support the

Sudeten Germans with military force:

The Germans in Czechoslovakia are neither defenseless, nor are they deserted, and people should take notice of that fact.

Then Chamberlain intervened September 15, 1938

Munich 1938:

Chamberlain waving his hat

to unseen

crowd at

Oberwiesenfeld

Airport.

1. Chamberlain met Hitler at

Berchtesgaden:

Hitler promised him that that the Sudeten Question was, the last problem to be solved.

Chamberlain decided Hitler was, a man who can be relied upon.

Hitler demanded the parts of the Sudetenland in which ethnic

German formed the majority be

annexed to Germany on grounds

of the principle of self-

determination (by holding a

referendum).

Chamberlain and Deladier, the French Premier, agreed that all areas, in which more than half of the population was German, should be

ceded to Germany (pending a plebiscite), while the borders of the rest

of Czechoslovakia should be internationally guaranteed.

(Left:) Still Hope: Peace Dove Chamberlain descends

upon Hitlers home (below) on the Obersalzberg of the

Bavarian Alps near Berchtesgaden in

Southern Germany.

The Berghof, September 15: Hitler greets Chamberlain; Nazi Foreign Minister

Von Ribbentrop watches on the right.

Next, Chamberlain and Deladier forced (!) the Czech Government to accept this arrangement.

2. Chamberlain met Hitler for a 2nd

time, now at Bad Godesberg:

Still not satisfied, Hitler now rejected the Anglo-French concession and made

additional demands; his new price for

peace: the immediate annexation ( =

WITHOUT a referendum!) of all German

areas with military installations & factories

intact, plus supervised plebiscites in areas

with German minorities. This would

increase both the area and value of land that

Czechoslovakia would have to give up.

1938: England During

Czech Crisis

Photo showing a newspaper

stand in London.

September 22, 1938

Chamberlain refused these new demands; the Czech Government mobilized all its

forces; France called up over half a

million reserves. War seemed probable

3. Britain and France met Hitler

yet again and made a pact with

him at Munich :

Chamberlain now determined that Czechoslovakia was not one of the

great issues which justified war, but merely, a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom

we know nothing.

Neville Chamberlain waving and smiling as he steps out of

the airplane for the benefit of

the press.

September 29, 1938

Joined by FDR, he called for an

international conference, which would

be convened in Munich and involve

the four Great Powers of Europe; the

Czech Government was not even

invited to the talks (!) nor was the

Soviet leadership

At Munich, Hitler won his new demands:

The Czechs would have to evacuate the German [Sudetenland] areas as early as

by October 10th

Plebiscites were to be held under international supervision in all areas

home to German minorities

The adjusted borders of the Czechoslovak state would be guaranteed

by all four Powers.

Britain and France notified the Czechs that they were free to fight if they wished, but that they

would have no British nor French support (!)

The Czechs acknowledged the futility of

resistance and chose not to fight

Selassie

Schuschnigg

Bene

Hitler Signs the Munich

Agreement

(September 30, 1938)

Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitlers Joint Resolution "Never to Go to War with One Another Again"

Chamberlain gave Hitler the green light for a peaceful annexation of

the Sudetenland; thus, on September 29th, Britain and France sealed

the fate of Czechoslovakia by signing the infant-state over to the Nazis.

Significance of Munich 1938:

Neville Chamberlain (England), douard Daladier

(France), Hitler, Benito Mussolini (Italy), and Galeazzo

Ciano (Italy) before signing the Munich Agreement.

The Betrayal of

Czechoslovakia:

Chamberlain, Daladier,

Mussolini & Hitler

September 30th, 1938

Chamberlain returned to England with his famous piece of paper: I believe it is peace for our time, he told the cheering crowd. To his sister, the Prime Minster wrote:

You have only to look at the map to see that nothing that France or we could do could possibly save Czechoslovakia

from being overrun by the Germans, if they wanted to do it.

At the time of the Munich Conference in September 1938, the fortifications were filled with 1.5 million mobilized Czechs and

Slovaks. Morale was high, and nobody doubted that the French and

British would honor treaties with Czechoslovakia and help the young

democracy.

But instead, Chamberlain signed off on the Munich Agreement, ceding the German areas of Czechoslovakia, and with it the Czech

fortification line (!),

to Hitler without

involving Czech

representatives in

the negotiations.

Results of Munich:

(Chamberlain won a Nobel Prize for this

appeasement policy!)

Alone, the Czechoslovak army outnumbered by the Germans three to one would stand no chance. The frustrated soldiers

were ordered home, and Czechs were forced out of the

Sudetenland. Half a year later, in March 1939, Hitler occupied

the rest of the Czech Republic

Today, the never-used bunkers along the hiking trails around Landtejn stand witness to the futility of appeasement policies

and to the Czechs bitter sense of betrayal

An assessment of the Munich Agreement by a Czech historian:

With the protective belt of frontier-mountains Czechoslovakia lost the warrant of her independenceWith the destruction of the Czechoslovak

state Central Europe had its spine broken, the Western democracies

lost more than 40 divisions of potential allies, and Germany had no

obstacle in her march to the South-East (Polisensky 1947).

Captured without firing a shot: A Czech bunker in German hands following the German take-over of the Sudetenland

The Never-Used Fortifications

Hitler marched unopposed into the Sudetenland. He said that it was the start of a 1,000-year German Reich; earlier, after the Munich

Conference, he had declared:

Thus we begin

our march into

the great

German future

October 1, 1938

The last democracy in

Eastern Europe

had been

abandoned to

Hitler

Czechoslovakia, 1938:

Konrad Henlein speaks in the

marketplace in Eger during the

time of the German annexation

of the Sudetenland.

October 13, 1938: Hitler visiting his victorious Army in the Sudetenland

Great PR for Hitler:

Liberation Day for theSudeten-Germans

Eger, October 3rd, 1938

Significance of Munich to (future)East-West relations [= The Cold War!]

However, fear of Communism spreading throughout Europe was sufficiently strong to prompt Britain and France to exclude (!) Russia from the negotiations in Munich

The USSR was the obvious choice to protect Czechoslovakia: Britain and France were too far away to be able to viably act and Russians,

Czechs & Slovaks shared a common Slavic heritage.

This Soviet-exclusion from Munich arguably

precipitated the 1939

Nazi-Soviet Non-

Aggression Pact; a well-

founded fear on the part

of Stalin that Russia

would be abandoned by

Britain and France (just

like Czechoslovakia had

been!) led the Soviet

leader to secure his own

borders by whatever

means necessary even

if that meant striking a

deal with Hitler in

August 1939!

1930s-era Soviet poster

by Kukryniksy showing

Western powers serving

up Czechoslovakia to

Hitler on a dish.

Inscription in the flag:

To the East!

The Occupation of Prague:

A Motorcycle Division on the Charles Bridge

(March 15, 1939)

On 15 March 1939, Hitlers troops

marched into the rest

of Czechoslovakia.

This, for most British

people, was the time

when they realized

that the only thing

that would stop Hitler

was war

Czechoslovakia

Los Angeles Times, March 18, 1939 Last but not least: UP