Word: chamberlaine
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...question reverberated last week from the leathery fastnesses of St. James's clubs to the House of Commons smoking room. With mordant relish, Britons were discussing a new biography of Neville Chamberlain, in which the Man of Munich is pictured not as a vain, gullible appeaser but as a bold, imaginative statesman who took the only gamble open to him. What gave the debate an irresistible piquancy was that Chamberlain's apologist is Iain Macleod, 48, chairman of the Conservative Party, leader of the House of Commons and an odds-on candidate to succeed Harold Macmillan as Prime...
...defense rests largely on the argument that the Munich pact was a wise if bitter expedient necessitated by the fact that Britain and the Commonwealth were "not ready for war." Growled the Times (which supported Munich): "The reply must be to ask why they were not." For though Chamberlain himself had realized the urgent need for rearmament four years before Munich, and later described Hitler as a "lunatic," he could close his eyes to all unpleasant evidence. He left the first meeting with Hitler at Berchtesgaden in 1938 radiating confidence that "here was a man who could be relied upon...
...from sharing Biographer Macleod's belief that Munich was a shrewd play for time. Chamberlain actually seemed convinced that it was a great, enduring master stroke that, as he boasted, would assure "peace with honor, peace for our time." Too often, Author Macleod's biography soft-pedals Chamberlain's naiveté and glosses over his smugness and arrogance, such as his unfeeling verdict on Hitler's dismemberment of Czechoslovakia: "A quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing...
...question of air access to Berlin, Chamberlain asserted, is one of the major dilemmas the West must face. "Any admission that Russia has the right to control air traffic," he said, "will be a prelude to disaster...
...Chamberlain urged "courage, stoicism, and resolution" in facing the Berlin crists. "Do we want to find ourselves walled up in a cage like 16 million East Germans?" he asked...