Some very interesting things in the Gallup Poll.
1. People favored a peace conference. All well and good in principle, I suppose; try real diplomacy instead of instigating war. The problem was that at this time, Chamberlain’s sellout at Munich had set the bar too low for peace conferences. A peace conference is the place for very strong diplomacy, not a sellout. This is a very relevant lesson that needs to be applied today, and always.
2. 94% of those polled said Germany & Italy would start the the next war. I don’t know that I’ve EVER seen a Gallup poll with those numbers. It’s pretty clear at this time that everyone sees where the international problem lies. What bothers me is that today, you would not get the same numbers if the same question were asked of Iran. Worse, Gallup would not even ask the question. It’s not on their political agenda.
3. There is a nagging feeling among a significant portion of the American public that Britain and France botched the Treaty of Versailles. Despite the poll number that 94% believe Germany will be the aggressor in the next war, 40% believe she was unfairly treated by Britain and France by the post-WWI peace. I could characterize this feeling as “looks like the Krauts are going to start another war, but I can see where they are coming from since they’ve been treated like crap.”
Imho, an important point. What it means is that at least 40% have bought into German propaganda to the effect that innocent Germans did not start the First World War, and so did not deserve such punishment after-wards.
If you asked the same question today, probably 80% of Americans never heard of the Versailles treaty, but of those who know about it, something like 94% would say the Germans got a bum deal. Of course the reason is, that's what every history book of the last 50 years tells us.
But the truth is, the Kaiser's government did start WWI, and for no reason except to conquer and dominate Europe. And the peace imposed by Germany on conquered Belgium and Russia was harsher than that imposed by the allies on Germany.
So Hitler's moves in 1939 had little to do with redressing just grievances, and everything to do with completing the Kaiser's unfinished agenda from 1914.
The correct policies for western allies would have been, first of all, do everything possible to encourage success and Versailles compliance of the old Weimar Republic. Failing that (the Great Depression might have made success impossible), the new policy regarding Hitler should be to oppose him strongly at every turn. He needed to be defeated early (i.e., Rhineland 1936) and often.
Of course, that would mean risking war, which most western citizens did not want, nor yet think inevitable, because, after all, didn't the Germans have some reasonable complaints? Besides, if Germany collapsed, who would defend the west against Stalin's Communism?