h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Munich Agreement: Peace For Our Time? - A50096126
Author: Danny B. [Musicians' Guild (U150368); Science EXplained (A4108330); Curator; Scavenger] - U182633

This week's Entry for the Stretcher. I have to confess I'm *severely* lacking in inspiration this time. Still, peace is the opposite of anger, sort of..?

Anyway, I'm away on business this week, so changes (and I imagine there will be lots...) will be done as soon as I can.

Good choice for your 'opposite', I think. And definitely a bad effect. You've chosen a significant moment in history.

In the first paragraph, I would change the opening of the sentence beginning 'So when, in the later 1930s, ', only because the sentence is weakened by the opening.

Nitpick: 'Lebensraum' should be capitalised.

'adjacent to the Czech Republic' - probably, 'adjacent to what is now the Czech Republic', or Moravian and Bohemia...

''German generals were planning the invasion of Czechoslovakia' - this is partly true, although General Beck resigned as head of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht because he did NOT want to invade:

http://books.google.com/books?id=LLL81vhDAeUC&pg=PA150&lpg=PA150&dq=General+Beck+invasion+of+Czechoslovakia&source=bl&ots=DPop-i4fy5&sig=3dGAMhnoWs4RDuDzK3K6EnCU2gc&hl=en&ei=RxLqSdvfE9yLtgfer_nHBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPA151,M1

Beck was later part of the plot to kill Hitler. As I understood it, he was actually hoping that Chamberlain would stand up to Hitler, and that he, Beck, could turn the army on Berlin.

'see no other option' - 'seeing no other option'.

'And then the Second World War happened.' - I feeel compelled to point out that this is rather a rhetorical jump.

I'd suggest calling the last section 'the road to war', or similar.

While it seems unfair that the negotiations were carried out without the participation of the Czechs, it might be recalled that Czechoslovakia was an artificial state created at the end of World War I, like others in the Balkans. In hindsight, we realise how bad the judgement here was. At that time, it might merely have seemed to be a case of a 'failed state', which is what we've been calling Afghanistan and Somalia of late. (We don't learn.)

Not saying you're wrong here: just thinking about the logic Chamberlain was using.

for the photo link. That photo of Chamberlain holding up the agreement is iconic.

Finally, some 'sticky' audio. This is Hitler on the Sudetenland: http://www.truveo.com/Adolf-Hitler-on-the-Sudetenland-Crisis/id/1476137046

And the audio of Chamberlain: http://www.truveo.com/Adolf-Hitler-on-the-Sudetenland-Crisis/id/1476137046

Sorry about the adverts. The History Channel is a for-profit organisation. There might be something in the Library of Congress files.

This is a fine entry on a difficult subject.
can't add anything to dmitri's nitpicks.
Maybe I should go and poke benjaminpmoore to finish his uni project on Hitler, it would be nice if there could be links.

Thanks for those dmitri - much appreciated

Couple of things:
"While it seems unfair that the negotiations were carried out without the participation of the Czechs..."

I've added a bit about Czechoslovakia being an artificial country, but do you think I should add something about it being seen as a 'failed state'?



I couldn't get the video links to work for some reason. And you've given the same link twice for Chamberlain and Hitler If I get some time before I go away, I'll have a look on the Library of Congress website as you suggest



Thanks also to Bel
I was rather surprised by the lack of suitable links while I was writing it - there's a definite lack of WWII-related h2g2 Entries

I think that covers it, no need to talk about failed states.

Sorry about the links - I got them while listening, but that website is American, and commercial. It might not be available from another country, just as I can't get downloads from the BBC if they aren't World Service.

Here's the text of Chamberlain's war declartion speech from the BBC, with audio:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/history/worldwar2audioclipslibrary_clip01.shtml

Here is the 'Peace for Our Time' speech from the CBC:

http://archives.cbc.ca/politics/international_politics/clips/7057/&ref=spe

You're right - we need to get more about this historical period into the Guide.

Thanks for those links - I've added them to the Entry, and tried to make it a bit clearer that Chamberlain made two speeches that day. The first from the aerodrome ('Peace in Europe' - the one you've linked) and then one from Downing Street (the more famous 'Peace for our time')

Yes. I think the quotes help.

Good job.

Ms GB

WWII edited entries are here: C1061 - if anybody finds any others which are missing from that category but should be there please inform the Eds at EF, it's beyond the remit of Curators to add entries to categories.

GB

GB - our comment weren't about Entries being in the wrong category (and I know what Curators can and can't do ), it was just surprise about the lack of more general Entries about WWII. There's no overview Entry; there's nothing about Hitler, Churchill, Chamberlain, Roosevelt, Stalin. The Entries that are there seem to be mostly about details, which is great, but few of them are suitable for linking from this Entry (although I have added a couple to the REFERENCES section - for some reason I never think to use the category system, so thanks for pointing me in that direction )

And I've just noticed that some changes I made last night have disappeared. Which is rather annoying

Good Entry, clear and to the point.

Another nitpick: shouldn't there be full stops at the end of the quotes? ("Go home and get a nice quiet sleep", "Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators", etc)

That's a good question - I think I've done quotations differently in every Entry I've written! I've added full stops for now, and the subeditor can decide whether they want to keep them!

This is well-researched and written.

It certainly sounds as if the Munich agreement was craven surrender - and thus the opposite of anger.

But I thought that one problem was that Britain in 1938 was in no state to fight and spent the next year re-arming.

War's an angry business. The desire for peace seems a valid opposite. If you can produce something this good when you're all out of inspiration, then wow...

Thanks chaps

"But I thought that one problem was that Britain in 1938 was in no state to fight and spent the next year re-arming."

Historians occasionally try to provide a different take on the events of Munich; that Chamberlain was sacrificing his career to buy time to build weapons; that it was all cleverly a designed trap to force Germany into war on the Allies' terms(!); etc. As far as I can tell (I'm no historian, but based on what I've read) none of these arguments really hold water. That's why I didn't mention them in the Entry. Chamberlain, in all sincerity as far as I can tell, felt that giving in to Hitler's demands was the best way of avoiding war. If Hitler had been even remotely sane, he might have been right...

I would agree on all counts.

I think it was a missed opportunity.

This is a good piece, but there's a bit of overlap with A1000774 - you may need to fiddle with it if it's to go into the Edited Guide.

Not much overlap - I did check the existing Entry before I started, and it's linked from my Entry. Try searching A1000774 for the word 'Munich' for example...

I only said a bit There's a table running through the various invasions and Britain and France's lack of response to them.

Fair enough

So what sort of fiddling would you suggest? To my mind, the two pieces could work well together - there's an obvious link from A1000774 to mine on the words "a series of meetings" in the table you mention.

Ok, fair enough. It was just a first impression.