Bush loved to point to Chamberlain as a weak leader that practiced appeasement which made Europe vulnerable to the Nazis. So, appeasement became a dirty word, one that affirmed cowardice.
No historian will assess Chamberlain any differently, but, in reality could he have done anything different? Europe was unprepared for war and Germany was armed to the teeth with all kinds of war machines never encountered before. Little did anyone know the price for the German military was paid for by the blood of so many Jews. It was Russia that discovered the ugly truth.
No historian will assess Chamberlain any differently, but, in reality could he have done anything different? Europe was unprepared for war and Germany was armed to the teeth with all kinds of war machines never encountered before. Little did anyone know the price for the German military was paid for by the blood of so many Jews. It was Russia that discovered the ugly truth.
Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and compromise, thereby avoiding the resort to an armed conflict which would be expensive, bloody, and possibly dangerous.
The circumstances within the Middle East are vastly different today than in 1933 or 1939. I so wish the USA hadn't lost the spy drone over Iran. Pity.
The circumstances within the Middle East are vastly different today than in 1933 or 1939. I so wish the USA hadn't lost the spy drone over Iran. Pity.
Wednesday, 1 September, 1999, 08:02 GMT 09:02 UK
Prime Minister Chamberlain declares war (click title to entry - thank you)
...I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street.
This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that, unless we hear from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.
You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed. Yet I cannot believe that there is anything more or anything different that I could have done and that would have been more successful....
I sincerely doubt there is anything intelligence doesn't know about Iran. I mean, a virus that ended a nuclear capacity? Give me a break.
But, to take an honest look at what this is all about, calling diplomacy appeasement is not getting the free world anywhere. And Israel is not about appeasement. They are very able.
