U.S. Warns North Korea Of Overwhelming Response

[Rev. Rye]

Yeah, you're probably right. Historically, appeasement and not warning a hard-headed ego-maniac dictator always worked.

Well, that did actually work if you figure that Chamberlain's actual aim (like many historians today) with the whole Munich Accords process was a plan to buy time for Britain to properly re-arm after the massive backlash against militarism after WW1. That said, there's serious debate about how optimistic he was about Hitler at least making some lip service at stopping with the Sudetenland and whether or not, even in their weakened states, Britain could have beaten the Nazis in 1938, but it's become clear to any student of history that the whole "Guilty Men" meme simply does not work at face value.

It's worth noting that this is actually an extremely contentious chapter of world history, but here's my take on it:

In 1938, the prospect of a coming war was extremely unpopular in Britain. After all, 20 years before, "The War to End All Wars" ended and that accomplished nothing of note except millions of young men sent to their graves and a geopolitical situation that was actually a lot less stable than before the war. It more or less single-handedly kick-started Anti-war literature, taking something unusual and turning it into a major theme in world literature. And then, Adolf Hitler decided to start annexing parts of Europe into his warped view of Germany. It's worth noting that the worst aspects of Nazi Germany had yet to be codified (the Final Solution would not be finalised until January 1942) and Hitler's megalomania was nowhere near as apparent to the world community as it would be mere years later, but, nevertheless, this development disturbed many, and the world ended up in a very awkward situation: either repeat history with yet another repeat of the Great War with a higher body count, or let him continue unmolested.

Star Trek fans may recognise this as a Kobayashi-Maru: an unwinnable situation where participants are tested on how they handle it. The problems of just letting Hitler do as he wanted are self-evident, but since war was so unpopular (with the British public, but they noticed that the French would also have a worse time, given what Germany had done to them a generation prior), especially if it seemed like it was somehow him who botched the peace talks, simply standing up to him as many today would hope would have been a horrible decision. Instead, he ended up suggesting a provisional solution wherein Hitler would be allowed to annex small sections of Czechoslovakia where a large number of ethnic Germans (who tended to be pro-Nazi) lived. But, of course, it should be noted that Chamberlain was actually well-aware of Hitler's expansionist nature and re-armament and knew it was necessary for Britain to do the same as early as 1935, but knew it would have been political suicide to let the public know about it before they were convinced that Hitler was dangerous. It's worth noting that, in the immediate aftermath of the talks, he was widely respected, with even FDR sending a telegram saying "Good Man" in response, with only Winston Churchill dissenting in their praise. And, of course, as soon as he came back, he supervised the covert re-armament of the British armed forces, so that, by the time Hitler invaded Poland a year later, they would be up for the task of stopping him. Honestly, all things considered, he did a damn fine job.

Really, the area where he failed was not his appeasing to Hitler, but in his doing a poor job of fighting him. Of course, he eventually did declare war on Germany





but by the time he was ready to send troops to Poland, it had fallen, leading to a very awkward period called "The Phony War" where very little fighting actually happened. It was then that Chamberlain decided to resign in favor of Churchill, who proved to be a lot better at running the war and stirring up the people, but he still worked with Churchill, stirring up support for him (at the time he was still controversial; one Bertrand Russell essay mentioned him in the same breath as the Fascisti and the Klan; and, divorced from his Wartime actions, he still kind of is. See "Operation Unthinkable" to see why, or ask an Indian) and working on his war council, until he was diagnosed with terminal cancer months after his resignation.

TL;DR: There's actually a lot more to the Munich Agreement than most people realise.