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January 31st, 2011
Berkeley, California
Received by FAB
I am here, Neville Chamberlain.
Yes, I come at your request. Yes, we did enable the Nazis. We were
thinking about the balance of power in Europe. We were not thinking
at all about the welfare of the European people. I've had to endure
the taunts of those who suffered as a result of my decisions. I
have not come out of my darkness. Help me.
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 – 9 November
1940) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain
is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular
for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the Sudetenland
region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. When Adolf Hitler continued
his aggression by invading Poland, Britain declared war on Germany
on 3 September 1939, and Chamberlain led Britain through the first
eight months of the Second World War.
His premiership was dominated by the question of policy towards
the increasingly aggressive Germany, and his actions at Munich were
widely popular among Britons at the time. When Hitler continued
his aggression, Chamberlain pledged Britain to defend Poland's independence
if the latter were attacked, an alliance that brought Britain into
war when Germany attacked Poland in 1939.
Chamberlain resigned the premiership on 10 May 1940, after the
Allies were forced to retreat from Norway as he believed a government
supported by all parties was essential, and the Labour and Liberal
parties would not join a government headed by him. He was succeeded
by Winston Churchill.
Chamberlain's reputation remains controversial among historians,
with the initial high regard for him being entirely eroded by books
such as Guilty Men, published in July 1940, which blamed Chamberlain
and his associates for the Munich accord and for allegedly failing
to prepare the country for war.
(Source: Wikipedia)
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