In May 1937, Neville Chamberlain replaced the retiring Stanley Baldwin as prime minister of Great Britain. Against the vigorous objections of a faction of Parliament led by Winston Churchill, the Baldwin government had maintained an essentially pacifist policy with regard to preparedness for war. At the same time, Great Britain was bound by a number of military treaties, chiefly with France, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, which could well draw Great Britain into war if any of those nations were attacked. Seeking a means of avoiding conflict, Chamberlain proposed a policy of "active appeasement" with regard to an increasingly voracious Germany. Chamberlain's idea was to discover what Adolf Hitler wanted and then, if possible, to give it to him. In this way, Chamberlain hoped to conserve military resources to fight what his government considered the most immediate and serious war threats: from Italy and Japan, not from Germany.

On March 13, 1938, Hitler invaded Austria, his army receiving opposition from neither Italy (at the time perceived as a potential rival to Germany) nor from Austria itself. Hitler proclaimed Anschluss, the joining of Austria to Germany as a province of the German Reich, or government.

The easy success of Anschluss emboldened Hitler and put Germany in position to make its next move--into Czechoslovakia. Although he was intent on appeasing Hitler, Chamberlain warned him to negotiate with the Czechs. In response, Hitler blustered and stood firm. For his part, Chamberlain caved in. Hat in hand, as it were, he flew (in an age when executives of state rarely traveled by air) to Berchtesgaden, Hitler's Bavarian mountain retreat, and simply proposed to give Hitler all that he demanded. Almost taken aback by this bounty, Hitler demanded cession of the Sudetenland, the German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain agreed, asking only that Hitler delay invasion until he could persuade Paris and Prague to go along with the plan.

The French government was appalled by the proposal and appealed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was, however, unable to move Congress to alter U.S. neutrality. Thus rebuffed, France declined to stand alone against Germany and agreed to hand over the Sudetenland to Hitler. Pursuant to this agreement, Chamberlain organized the Munich Conference on September 29-30, 1938, which formalized the betrayal of the Czechs, ceding the Sudetenland to Germany in return for Hitler's pledge that he make no more territorial demands in Europe. . .

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