Appeasement Reconsidered: Investigating the Mythology of the 1930s by Jeffrey Record, Ph.D., Monograph published by the Strategic Studies Institute, United States Army College. The author is on the faculty of the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama.
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/pub622.pdf
By careful analysis of the events leading up to Munich, the author convincingly demonstrates that the Munich analogy has been consistently misused as an argument for war during the years following WWII up to the present time. I am gratified to see a military historian, in the employ of the United States military, present a thorough and scholarly response to the question that I am asked so frequently as the “closer” argument in my discussions with those who are pro-war. “Well, what would you have done at Munich?” As this author points out, this is totally irrelevant to any situation that we have encountered since that time. I am SO tired of trying to explain this to those who are ignorant of history and do not want to learn any from me. Now I can direct them to this 60 page monograph (with references) and save my breath. They may choose not to read it, but then, neither would they choose to listen to me.
American sold Curtis Hawk dive bombers to Nazi Germany and Britain sold them Rolls-Royce aircraft engines. The Nazi’s tested, learned, improved, and voila, the Stuka dive bomber. So there’s nothing new in providing arms to Iraq and Afghanistan that we’ve been confronting there. Ah bucks are good and lives are cheap in the arms trade. We kept up trade with Nazi Germany right to the start of the war.
Comment by admin — December 20, 2010 @ 5:55 pm