September 30, 1938: The Munich Agreement

September 30, 1938: The Munich Agreement is reached. Terrified of what another continent-wide war would mean, just 20 years after the conclusion of "The Great War" -- which we now know as World War I -- Britain and France abandon their ally Czechoslovakia, and cave in to Nazi Germany's demand for the western part of that country, the Sudetenland, which was mostly ethnically and linguistically German.

This was "appeasement," and most of Europe celebrated it at the time, because it meant peace, following nearly a month of the Nazis, led by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, saying they would invade and take the Sudetenland, and that if Britain and France, their enemies in the previous war, tried to stop them, it would mean war again.

The 4 years of war, 1914 to 1918, were unbearable on both sides. Hitler was willing to risk it, even though his country had suffered more than Britain and France had. Britain and France were not willing to risk it.

Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of Britain, had gone to Munich to negotiate. He returned to London, got off the plane at Heston Aerodrome, and immediately met the press, saying:

The settlement of the Czechoslovak problem, which has now been achieved is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace.

This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler. And here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. 

He held up the document for all to see. It would have been heavily symbolic if it had blown away in the wind. He returned to 10 Downing Street, the traditional residence for the Prime Minister, and said:

My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.

The words are usually incorrectly listed as "peace in our time." But Hitler, having watched the later newsreel of Chamberlain's return, told his inner circle that the piece of paper meant nothing. In that, at the least, he was honest: In March 1939, he took the entirety of Czechoslovakia, and the British people, including Chamberlain himself, knew Chamberlain had been duped.

On September 1, 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. Two days later, Chamberlain asked Parliament for a declaration of war. France followed suit. To this day, it is debated whether the extra year gave Britain the time they needed to build up their defenses. Even if it did, it also gave Germany time to build up theirs. Would Britain and France have beaten Germany had the war started in October 1938, like it looked like it might? We'll never know.

In May 1940, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium fell. Chamberlain resigned in disgrace. Winston Churchill became the new Prime Minister. In June, France fell. It might not have mattered, in Chamberlain's case: He had cancer. Before the year was out, he was dead, and Nazi planes were bombing London and the other major cities in Britain.

Britain hung on long enough for America to get into the war in December 1941. By May 1945, the Nazis were defeated, and Hitler was dead.

But, in the years to come, "appeasement" would be the cry of anyone who wanted war rather than a "dishonorable" peace. Nowhere would this be a bigger problem for America than in Vietnam. In 1972, with the Vietnam War still going, "Munich" ceased to mean the appeasement of 1938. It now meant the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Olympics. So when the War On Terror and the Iraq War came along, America's warmongers couldn't use "Munich" as a code word any longer.

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September 30, 1938 was a Friday. There were 5 games played in what would later be called Major League Baseball:

* A doubleheader was split at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Reds won the 1st game, 7-1. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the 2nd game, 4-2.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 7-5 in the opener of a doubleheader at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The nightcap was 3-3 after 8 innings, before being called due to darkness.

* And the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals were tied, 7-7 after 9 innings at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, when that game was called due to darkness.