Read a brief aside in a book today about Chamberlain and Munich. Briefly it said that it was a peace conference which brought peace, and in no way a failure.

The reasoning was interesting, and I found powerful.

In 1938 Britain was in no way a military power. It was weak, not prepared for war, and would not have had a chance against Germany which had been re-arming furiously.

America was dominated by isolationists and would have been no help.

So, by "appeasing" they put it off another year while they started re-arming. In '39 they did go to war against Germany, and had a very, very tough time of it. It was a close call even as it was. And America didn't enter the war for 2 years after that, and only after Germany declared war on the US.

Interesting.