Thank you both for that info. I absolutely hate it when something I "believe" turns out to be wrong. Whats worse is that it is because of lazyness, it is an ignorance that could be easily fixed on my part.
I've learned more about history on FR than I did through decades of schooling.
My pleasure. Unfortunately Chamberlain did what was necessary but it looked like appeasement and his reputation has paid the price since and of course he was always going to come off second to Churchill’s charisma.
People also forget that Chamberlain had to contend with public opinion (which was very pro-appeasement) and also to opposition to war from the Dominions. The Canadian Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, told Chamberlain on several occasions during the 1930s that if he ever declared war on Hitler, Canada would remain neutral. He only made it clear to Chamberlain that he would support Britain in a war against Germany in August 1939 when he started to mobilise the Canadian military in preparation for a conflict.
Chamberlain gets a very bum rap as the poster child for appeasement when the fact of the matter is he didn’t really have any choice due to Britain’s military weakness (which he was doing his best to correct) public opinion and the opposition within the Empire.
He did nevertheless, do his best to prepare for the war that became increasingly inevitable, and was the man who in the end was the first world leader to finally stand up to Hitler and declare war on him on September 3rd 1939, later followed by the rest of the Empire and France.