Tag: Munich Crisis

Ripka
The dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, 1938-39. (1) Germany absorbs Sudetenland, October 1938. (2) Poland annexes Zaolzie, October 1938. (3/4) Hungary annexes Southern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia, November 1938. (5) Germany invades remaining territory, establishes Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, March 1939. (6) A pro-Hitler government declares the Slovak Republic, March 1939. (Map by Jaro p., Creative Commons)
Churchill, Ripka, Appeasement and the Czech Debacle

Churchill, Ripka, Appeasement and the Czech Debacle

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When Ripka said the Czechs would defend themselves, Churchill waxed emotional: “Tomáš.Masaryk was right,” he cried. “Death is better than slavery.” If war did come, he continued, mopping his eyes, this time they must wage it against the Boche so thoroughly that he wouldn’t recover for generations.... After a while he spoke of “Herr Beans,” as he pronounced the name of Czechoslovakia’s president, Edvard Beneš, Ripka continued: "Churchill called him one of the greatest men of our epoch, and praised the resolution of the Czechs to fight for freedom with such vehemence that he began to cry all over again."

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Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons furnishes a lifelike Neville Chamberlain. (Netflix)
“Munich, The Edge of War,” with Jeremy Irons: Fine Acting, Edgy History

“Munich, The Edge of War,” with Jeremy Irons: Fine Acting, Edgy History

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Regardless of whether you like the movie—and Jeremy Irons gives it an authentic, watchable flavor—we know much more about Munich in the light of scholarship since. We know that Soviet Russia was prepared to stand with Czechoslovakia in 1938, and had become a German ally in 1939. We know how—with the help of Czech armaments—Poland was eradicated in three weeks, the Low Countries in eighteen days, France in six weeks. If resisting Hitler was so ludicrous an idea in 1938, what was there about fighting him in 1939-40 that made it preferable? Given what we know, we are obliged to consider Churchill’s opinion—which was, characteristically, far from baseless.

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Munich
Munich, 1938: Mussolini and Ciano (last two at right) with Chamberlain, Daladier (who always looked like he was about to have a root canal) and HItler. (Wikimedia Commons)
Munich Reflections: Peace for “a” Time & the Case for Resistance

Munich Reflections: Peace for “a” Time & the Case for Resistance

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Jour­nal­ist Leo McKinstry’s Churchill and Attlee is a deft analy­sis of a polit­i­cal odd cou­ple who led Britain’s Sec­ond World War coali­tion gov­ern­ment. Now, eighty years since the death of Neville Cham­ber­lain, he has pub­lished an excel­lent appraisal in The Spec­ta­tor. Churchill’s pre­de­ces­sor as Prime Min­is­ter, Cham­ber­lain nego­ti­at­ed the 1938 Munich agree­ment. “Peace for our time,” he famous­ly referred to it.  In the end, he bought the world peace for a time.

Mr. McK­instry is right to regret that Cham­ber­lain has been rough­ly han­dled by his­to­ry. “The real­i­ty is that in the late 1930s Chamberlain’s approach was a ratio­nal one,” he writes.…

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Brexit
Eurozone participation (Wikipedia). BLUE: 19 EU members in the Eurozone. YELLOW: EU members obliged to join the Eurozone (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden). PINK: EU member with euro opt-out (Denmark). RED: EU member voting to leave (UK). GREEN: Non-EU mini-states using euro with a monetary agreement (Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City). PURPLE: Non-EU states using the euro unilaterally (Kosovo, Montenegro).
Brexit: Britannia Waives the Rules

Brexit: Britannia Waives the Rules

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Brex­it after­math, June 2016: In vot­ing to leave the Euro­pean Union, Britain has opt­ed to become anoth­er Nor­way. One of the most pros­per­ous and con­tent­ed coun­tries in the world, Nor­way does fine with its own laws, cur­ren­cy, and trade agree­ments, includ­ing a good one with the EU. It is hard­ly a bad model.

Short-term troubles

The gnash­ing of teeth over the upset Brex­it vic­to­ry resounds around the world. For awhile, chaos will attend finan­cial mar­kets, and the pound will take a dip (boost­ing British exports).

The Scots vot­ed against Brex­it, though not in the num­bers pre­dict­ed.…

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Maisky and Churchill: Hard to Put Down

Maisky and Churchill: Hard to Put Down

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Ivan Maisky: “The great­est sin of mod­ern states­man is vac­il­la­tion and ambi­gu­i­ty of thought and action.”

Gabriel Gorodet­sky, ed., The Maisky Diaries: Red Ambas­sador to the Court of St. James’s. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 634 pages, $28.80, Kin­dle $19.99, audio­book $36.32.

Excerpt­ed from the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. To read in full, click here.

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A strik­ing work of schol­ar­ship (actu­al­ly an abridge­ment of a three-vol­ume com­plete work com­ing in 2016), this book will inspire fresh schol­ar­ship on Churchill, Rus­sia and World War II. Ivan Maisky was a pen­e­trat­ing observ­er of 1932-43 Britain, and Gabriel Gorodet­sky con­nects every long gap in his diaries with informed accounts of what was hap­pen­ing.…

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Ripka
“Peace for our time.” Chamberlain arrives from Munich after the Sudeten agreement. (Wikimedia Commons)
“Iran is Not Nazi Germany…

“Iran is Not Nazi Germany…

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…And Mark Steyn is not Win­ston Churchill,” writes Tim Reuter in Forbes.

—a rather thought­ful piece, though a bit harsh on Mr. Steyn, who offered exact­ly the right take on Neville Cham­ber­lain. He was “an hon­or­able man who believed he was act­ing in the inter­est of his coun­try.” That was also how Churchill eulo­gized him after Chamberlain’s death in 1940.

It is reas­sur­ing to know that Iran is (thank good­ness) not Nazi Ger­many; and that the Iran nuclear deal and Munich are not anal­o­gous. But some of Mr. Reuter’s sen­tences rest uneasi­ly next to each other.…

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