Appeasement

1. World War II (1939–1945) was a renewed and perfected “total war,” even more intense than World War I and ultimately taking a toll of some 50 million dead.

2. Appeasement • British conservative Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) advanced a policy of “appeasement.” (The term today has associations that it lacked at the time. To contemporaries, it signified compromise by meeting justified complaints to avoid renewed war.) It enjoyed popular support at first, although Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigned in protest. France pessimistically followed the British lead. • Presenting himself as a defender of minorities, Hitler demanded from Czechoslovakia the Sudetenland, where 3.5 million “Sudeten Germans” lived. Czechoslovakia refused, and war seemed near by September 1938. In a dramatic initiative, Chamberlain flew to meet Hitler and engaged in what would today be called “shuttle diplomacy.”

3. Chamberlain was willing to compromise to avert war “because of a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.” • A summit meeting took place in Munich on September 29, 1938, with Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier (1884–1970), but without the Czechs. The conference assigned the Sudetenland to Germany and Chamberlain returned home with promises of “peace in our time.” • Contrary to Hitler’s promises, in March 1939 Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. • This proved to be a turning point in the evaluation of Hitler’s intentions; Britain and France extended guarantees to Poland, the likely next victim.

4. When Poland was invaded, France and Britain declared war, September 1939 • In his broadcast to the nation, Mr. Chamberlain spoke of his sadness that "the long struggle to win peace" had failed. He continued: "I cannot believe that there is anything more or anything different that I could have done and that would have been more successful." But fighting didn’t begin right away, leading to several months of what became known as the “Phony War”, which saw few clashes.

5. Churchill described appeasement as akin to waiting to be eaten last, and war was only delayed by a year. But there is a range of contemporary verdicts on appeasement.

6. The War Begins in Europe • Germany overran Denmark and Norway in a swift campaign in the spring of 1940. • Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, and France in May 1940.France fell with alarming speed, in part due to domestic divisions. • In June 1940, the French signed an armistice with Germany. • British forces narrowly escaped from Dunkirk.

7. Britain “Stands Alone” • Some in the British cabinet urged seeking peace, but this was turned down by Winston Churchill (1874– 1965), who became Prime Minister on May 10, 1940. In a dramatic gesture, bolstered by his remarkable oratory, Churchill urged the union of France and Great Britain. Britain now endured “standing alone” for 18 months, holding out against the air war of the Battle of Britain.

8. The Hitler-Stalin Pact • The diplomatic bombshell that paved the way to war was the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939. • The pact had seemed impossible due to the mutual ideological hatred of the parties, but British diplomacy to promote an alliance with the Soviet Union was slow and irresolute, reflecting serious questions about Soviet intentions and the Polish refusal to cooperate. • Meanwhile Stalin signaled his desire to come to terms with Hitler, replacing Litvinov with Vyacheslav Molotov as Foreign Minister in May 1939. •  Von Ribbentrop was sent to Moscow to negotiate the treaty between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Officially, it was a nonaggression treaty, harking back to the earlier Treaty of Rapallo of 1922. Stalin aimed to stay out of the next war to save the revolution (recalling the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk). Stalin, who trusted no one and decimated those he felt were potential enemies, chose to trust, of all people, Adolf Hitler.

9. In a secret appendix… Central and eastern Europe were divided between the signatories. Poland and the Baltic states were to be wiped off the map, recalling the 18th-century partitions of Poland. The existence of the secret treaty was denied by the Soviet Union until just before its collapse. • Hitler gained the assurance of avoiding a two-front war.

11. Protesters on August 23, 1987, head to Hirvepark in Tallinn to commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Photo by the State Security Committee (KGB) of the Estonian SSR.

12. Poland is carved up, Russia takes the Baltics, and tries to take Finland • German forces conquered Poland in five weeks, and Soviet forces moved in from the east, partitioning Poland. • Stalin sought to solidify control over his sphere of influence. He gave ultimatums to the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), which were forced to accept • Soviet bases and were annexed in 1940; mass deportations followed. The Soviets executed captured Polish officers at Katyn. • In a disastrous campaign—the Finnish Winter War (November 1939–March 1940)—Soviet forces • invaded Finland. • The Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations.

13. The War Progresses • Churchill worked to bring the neutral United States into the war. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt began Lend-Lease deliveries to Britain from March 1941. On August 14, 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, which laid out common principles, including self-determination. • Hitler worked on the reordering of Europe.Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the September 1940 Three Power Pact of mutual aid; henceforth, they would be known as the Axis Powers. The US joined the Allies on December 11th 1941 when Hitler Declared war on the US.

14. June 22, 1941~Operation BarbarossaGermany’s Attack on the Soviet Union • Pursuing his ideological long-term goals, Hitler turned to attack his ally, Stalin’s Soviet Union.

15. After a counterattack before Moscow in winter 1941 and the German defeat at Stalingrad in early 1943, the Soviets began to drive the Germans back. Great Britain and the Soviet Union allied in July 1941. The United States began shipments of materials to the Soviet Union. (The Soviet Neutrality Pact with Japan of April 1941 saved the Soviets from war on both fronts.)

16. Allied Diplomacy • The January 1942 Washington Pact committed the 26 “united nations” associated with the Allies not to make a separate peace with the Axis Powers. • After earlier meetings, Roosevelt and Churchill met at the Casablanca Conference (January 14–24, 1943) and agreed on demanding Germany’s unconditional surrender. • At the November–December 1943 Tehran Conference, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill (“The Big Three”) met together for the first time.Stalin’s calls for a second front were finally met with the decision to invade northern France and not pursue Churchill’s southern strategy to invade through southern Europe. A secret agreement agreed that Russia and Poland were to be shifted westward at Germany’s cost. Stalin demanded keeping his gains in eastern Europe. (Roosevelt and Churchill worried about Stalin making a separate peace with Hitler. Roosevelt won agreement on setting up an international organization. • Seeking to pin down Stalin’s demands, Churchill flew to Moscow in October 1944, concluding the Percentages Agreement.This strange encounter established spheres of influence in the Balkans, scrawled on a scrap of paper. The Soviets were to have most of their influence in Romania and Bulgaria, the British in Greece, and equal influence in Yugoslavia and Hungary. • Wartime negotiations climaxed at the Yalta Conference (in the Crimea) between Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt (already seriously ill) in February 1945—the most important of the summit meetings. The Allies had reached Germany’s borders., so the the main issue was Poland (which received Silesia, Pomerania, and most of East Prussia) and establishing zones of occupation in Germany (Stalin also agreed to enter the war against Japan). Roosevelt pressed his plan for a United Nations and got Stalin’s agreement. The leaders signed the Declaration on Liberated Europe, promising national sovereignty and democracy for the future, and Stalin agreed to free elections in Poland. The French were not invited to negotiate but received an occupation zone in Germany at Churchill’s • urging.

17. The Aftermath of Yalta • Many eastern Europeans see Yalta as emblematic of their consignment to the Soviet sphere; some have viewed it as a Western betrayal.Other scholars respond that Yalta was the best that could be realistically achieved at the time. • But most agree that Yalta left eastern Europe to Stalin, who insisted on friendly governments.

18. The trap closed on Germany and its allies. • Mussolini was overthrown and in September 1943, Italy changed sides. • Senior Nazis sought to negotiate but were turned down. When Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, Hitler hoped in vain for a repetition of the “Miracle of the House of Brandenburg” of 1762, which had saved Frederick the Great. • On April 30, 1945, Hitler killed himself. • On May 8, Germany’s total surrender came into effect. • After the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945 and the Soviets declared war, Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945. In the wake of immense destruction and suffering, Europeans awaited a new peace, but one that now would be determined from outside.

19. Europe is Flanked • Now, Europeans witnessed the beginning of their continent’s division into two blocs, western and eastern, both under the patronage of outside powers that now in practice became European powers. • The Western Bloc would be led by the United States, which now dramatically changed earlier patterns • of its involvement in foreign affairs. • The Eastern Bloc was dominated by the Soviet Union, a Eurasian power, inheriting the ambitions of • the earlier Russian Empire.

20. One important decision the Allies made was to hold the Nuremberg Trials