Neville Chamberlain, September, 1938, returns to Britain from Munich and talks with “Herr Hitler”. “Like many in Britain who had lived through World War One, Chamberlain was determined to avert another war. His policy of appeasement towards Adolf Hitler culminated in the Munich Agreement in which Britain and France accepted that the Czech region of the Sudetenland should be ceded to Germany. Chamberlain left Munich believing that by appeasing Hitler he had assured ‘peace for our time’. However, in March 1939 Hitler annexed the rest of the Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia, with Slovakia becoming a puppet state of Germany. Five months later in September 1939 Hitler’s forces invaded Poland. Chamberlain responded with a British declaration of war on Germany.” BBC
OPINION on appeasement, Time, by contributor Michael Roth, President of Wesleyan University:
Roth begins by saying, “It’s hard to find anyone who has a bad word to say about de-escalation. The problem is that de-escalation isn’t always possible, and right now some powerful institutions seem to view only one other path as possible: appeasement, a method of engagement far less likely to elicit praise and far more likely to cause damage. And they’re jumping to it quickly.”
Neville Chamberlain is the example of how appeasement fails. It fails because whether dealing with a toddler wanting more ice cream or a dictator wanting territory, they come back for more.
”Stories of appeasement remind us that some people may never be satisfied—no matter how much one gives into them.” Appeasement is in bad odor because it doesn’t work.
Case in point: Columbia recently appeased Trump when he threatened to withhold hundreds of millions in federal funding over perceived anti-semitism in light of pro-Palestinian student protests.
”. . . the university gave in to the Trump Administration’s demands, promising, among other things, to hire dozens of police officers with the power to arrest students and to appoint a new senior vice provost to oversee Middle Eastern studies. “. Now, “ the Administration’s demands have been described as merely “a precondition for formal negotiations”; the White House may call for other “immediate and long-term structural reforms.” Peace at Columbia may be quite short lived.” (Cont)
More in Time. March 28, 2025
