# Neville Chamberlain: Misunderstood Hero **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 13, 2026, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248 "2026-04-13T18:13:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/1 "2026-04-13T18:13:25Z")
Everything you probably think you know about Chamberlain – that he was a gullible fool who was easily manipulated by Hitler – is absolutely wrong. This post is based on the work of Dr. Gerhard Weinberg, an award-winning historian at the University of North Carolina and author of _The Foreign Policy of Hitler’s Germany_ and a 1000-page popular history of the war, _The World at Arms._ When Chamberlain and Hitler met at Munich, both men knew very well that war was inevitable – _and_ both knew that the sooner that war started, the more likely Germany would win. The Munich conference was a brilliant act of diplomatic jui-jitsu. By giving Hitler exactly what he _said_ he wanted - a free hand in Czechoslovakia - Chamberlain denied him what he _actually_ wanted - the outbreak of a global war in 1938 instead of 1939. He bought Britain a crucially needed year to continue rearming and shore up its diplomatic position. Weinberg’s work with then-recently declassified German papers reveals that Hitler himself was furious with the outcome of Munich, and regarded it as a humiliating defeat at the hands of Chamberlain. Churchill complained in Parliament about “appeasement” and abstained from the vote to ratify the Munich agreement, but privately admitted to Czech officials that he would have done the same thing if he had been PM. The Chamberlain government in fact had been increasing the military budget for years, and in spring of 1940 instituted the first peacetime draft in British history. These aren’t the actions of a man who actually thought he had achieved “peace in our time”. Note that Britain did not have any treaty obligations to defend Czechoslovakia against aggression – but both France and the USSR did, and both ignored those obligations. I don’t know that the extra year did any good in this regard, but Chamberlain can hardly be blamed for feeling he could use some more time to try to strengthen the resolve of Britain’s future allies. At the time, a defensive alliance with the USSR seemed reasonably within the realm of possibility, and obviously that would have greatly strengthened the Allied position if it had been achieved. The impact on British domestic politics also needs to be considered. The public did not want war – when Chamberlain returned from Munich, the sidewalks were crammed with cheering crowds for the entire nine miles from the airport to the Palace. When war came, the British public displayed a stunning degree of unity and resolve which is still remembered with awe and admiration today. That was only possible with the leadership of a government which couldn’t be accused of not having tried its best to avoid war. Shortly before his death, Chamberlain wrote: > So far as my personal reputation is concerned, I am not in the least disturbed about it. The letters which I am still receiving in such vast quantities so unanimously dwell on the same point, namely without Munich the war would have been lost and the Empire destroyed in 1938 … I do not feel the opposite view … has a chance of survival. Even if nothing further were to be published giving the true inside story of the past two years I should not fear the historian’s verdict Sadly, history has not been kind to Chamberlain. Nearly a century later, his name remains a synonym for clueless and ineffective leadership. Worse, his memory is often used by warmongers to attack those who argue against war as cowards or “appeasers”. But at least here on the Dope, this ignorance can be fought. [Cite](https://web.archive.org/web/20110516025447/http://www.bsu.edu/web/ksmith/weinberg.htm) : Here is an editorial Weinberg wrote in the Washington Post in 2002, briefly outlining his case for a revisionist view of Chamberlain in the context of opposing Bush’s war in Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/2 "2026-04-13T18:39:42Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > The Chamberlain government in fact had been increasing the military budget for years, and in spring of 1940 instituted the first peacetime draft in British history. I’m sure you got the year wrong here, because Britain was not at peace in 1940. 1938, maybe? (The US instituted its first ever peacetime draft in 1940, but it was still nominally at peace until 1941). > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Note that Britain did not have any treaty obligations to defend Czechoslovakia against aggression – but both France and the USSR did, and both ignored those obligations. France is the real key here, as the USSR shared no border with either Czechoslovakia or Germany, and no one in Eastern Europe was going to give it transit rights. Could the UK have given sufficient guarantees to France to allow it to act aggressively against a Germany tied up in the East? The lessons of a year later would seem to say no. Though on the other side of the coin, the Wehrmacht was weaker a year before the invasion of Poland, and Czechoslovakia had a more defensible border. Plus, Germany took over Czechoslovakia’s famous Skoda works which enabled it to produce many more weapons of war (e.g. the Pz38(t)) that were useful against the Allies. I’m not opposing Weinberg’s stance here; I learned a whole lot about WWII from reading _A World At Arms_ that I had never known before (and that was after three decades of study of the war). And certainly Chamberlain had a better appreciation for the politics and social response of Great Britain than others who criticize him now do. But there does need to be some appreciation of what was lost by Chamberlain’s policy as well as what was gained. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/3 "2026-04-13T18:42:10Z")
I disagree. It’s true that Britain and France did some re-arming in the period between September 1938 and May 1940. But Germany was re-arming at a much faster rate. So any delay favored Germany not Britain and France. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/4 "2026-04-13T18:43:50Z")
> [@SunUp](#): > > I’m sure you got the year wrong here, because Britain was not at peace in 1940. 1938, maybe? Britain’s military draft began in April 1939. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/5 "2026-04-13T18:49:14Z")
I remember @tomndebb convincingly mounting the same defense of Chamberlain on these boards some 25 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/6 "2026-04-13T19:16:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I disagree. > > It’s true that Britain and France did some re-arming in the period between September 1938 and May 1940. But Germany was re-arming at a much faster rate. So any delay favored Germany not Britain and France. Correct. In fact Germanys Panzer divisions had almost nothing but Panzer I and II, light tanks with anti-personnel armament. > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > When Chamberlain and Hitler met at Munich, both men knew very well that war was inevitable – _and_ both knew that the sooner that war started, the more likely Germany would win. In fact the German high command was ready to do a coup if Hitler had ordered war in 1938. Admiral Canaris the head of Intelligence, not only knew this but send messages to Britain telling them to call Hitlers bluff. However, the Cambridge Five- Kim Philby et al, who were secretly working for the Soviets (allied to Germany at that time), told the Government this was nothing but a Nazi trick. > [@SunUp](#): > > Though on the other side of the coin, the Wehrmacht was weaker a year before the invasion of Poland, and Czechoslovakia had a more defensible border. Plus, Germany took over Czechoslovakia’s famous Skoda works which enabled it to produce many more weapons of war (e.g. the Pz38(t)) that were useful against the Allies. Good points. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/7 "2026-04-13T19:35:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Britain’s military draft began in April 1939. Yes, of course, I meant 1939, not 1940. 🤦‍♂️ ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/8 "2026-04-13T19:39:31Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > In fact the German high command was ready to do a coup if Hitler had ordered war in 1938. Admiral Canaris the head of Intelligence, not only knew this but send messages to Britain telling them to call Hitlers bluff. However, the Cambridge Five- Kim Philby et al, who were secretly working for the Soviets (allied to Germany at that time), told the Government this was nothing but a Nazi trick. Weinberg reports that Chamberlain in 1938 received secret assurances of an impending coup from not one but _three_ different sources within the German government, all of whom were unaware of each other’s existence, and concluded from this that the internal anti-Nazi resistance in Germany was too disorganized to be relied upon. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/9 "2026-04-13T19:41:38Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Weinberg reports that Chamberlain in 1938 received secret assurances of an impending coup from not one but _three_ different sources within the German government, all of whom were unaware of each other’s existence, and concluded from this that the internal anti-Nazi resistance in Germany was too disorganized to be relied upon. Due to getting bad intelligence from the Cambridge Five. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/10 "2026-04-13T19:44:55Z")
> [@SunUp](#): > > Though on the other side of the coin, the Wehrmacht was weaker a year before the invasion of Poland, and Czechoslovakia had a more defensible border. Plus, Germany took over Czechoslovakia’s famous Skoda works which enabled it to produce many more weapons of war (e.g. the Pz38(t)) that were useful against the Allies. Defensible borders or not, there was no conceivable way Britain could have prevented Hitler from occupying Czechoslovakia. The only choice it faced was to react to the occupation by immediately declaring war, or not. If they’d declared war, even in the _best_ case scenario, where everything went just as in real life but a year earlier, Czechoslovakia still would have been occupied for years before being liberated. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/11 "2026-04-13T19:52:53Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It’s true that Britain and France did some re-arming in the period between September 1938 and May 1940. But Germany was re-arming at a much faster rate. So any delay favored Germany not Britain and France Well, Hitler certainly didn’t seem to think so. On the other hand, he was insane, so the fact that he was furious about having to wait another year to start the war doesn’t necessarily mean anything. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/12 "2026-04-13T19:54:25Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Defensible borders or not, there was no conceivable way Britain could have prevented Hitler from occupying Czechoslovakia. Britain, no, but Czechoslovakia could well have defended itself- with over a million men under arms, and better tanks than the Nazis at that time. The German army had only about 700-800000 men, less than Czechoslovakia did, with pitiful Panzer2 tanks. Pz.Kpfw2 had a 20mm gun, and 5-15mm of armor. The Czech tank had a 37mm gun and 8-30mm of armor, and in fact the Nazis immediately took it over and called it the Panzerkampfwagen 38(t). ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/13 "2026-04-13T19:58:54Z")
There were rumors of impending military coups throughout the entire Nazi era, and nothing ever came of them except for one assassination attempt in 1943. I find it highly implausible that the entire German High Command was actually on board with a coup attempt in 1938, but apparently all changed their minds by 1939. I don’t blame Chamberlain in the slightest for not wanting to bet the future of the world on Canaris’ reliability. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/14 "2026-04-13T20:01:18Z")
In regard to the OP, that was pretty much Churchill’s take also. I read his memoir of WWII (written in the 1950’s), and he said pretty much the same thing about Chamberlain. In other words, this isn’t really new scholarship. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/15 "2026-04-13T21:53:22Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Defensible borders or not, there was no conceivable way Britain could have prevented Hitler from occupying Czechoslovakia. The only choice it faced was to react to the occupation by immediately declaring war, or not. I agree that alone, Britain could not have helped Czechoslovakia. Could Britain’s support have steeled the French into honoring their treaty with Czechoslovakia? Prague was not going to fall as fast as Warsaw did, in the event, and a French attack into the Saar that met no resistance might have been more of a threat in 1938 than a year later. The French army probably could have taken Germany west of the Rhine if vigorously led, if the bulk of the Wehrmacht was deployed trying to take the Sudetenland. It’s an interesting counterfactual, but upon reflection I think it relies on too many ifs to have played much of a role in the thinking of Chamberlain. The initial BEF commitment to France in 1914 was six divisions plus cavalry; I suspect Britain in 1938 would have been hard-pressed to be able to send that many men to the Continent - and sending a smaller contingent would not have made the French more optimistic about the outcome of a possible war. So if Chamberlain can’t get the French to go, he’ll do a lot better to buy time, as he did in the event. I suspect that if Chamberlain hadn’t called the Munich Agreement “peace for our time”, he might be remembered more favorably today. The phrase smacks of starry-eyed optimism and when it became bitterly ironic just a year later, I think that ended up cooking ol’ Neville’s goose in the court of public opinion, particularly when compared to Churchill who had been screaming about Nazi rearmament for much of the Thirties. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/16 "2026-04-13T21:58:32Z")
I agree that phrase definitely came back to haunt him. But for obvious reasons, he couldn’t really say “Peace until next year!” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/17 "2026-04-13T22:05:26Z")
Perhaps he should have said: This buys us a year or maybe two to rearm for the inevitable war againt Nazi Germany while Hitler spends effort and treasure trying to subdue a resentful populace far from British interests. That’d have been realistic, and told Hitler nothing he & his inner circle didn’t all already know. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2026, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/18 "2026-04-13T23:45:32Z")
Well if part of the point was to set up a future case to the British public that appeasement wouldn’t work and build support for the war, telling them that he was manipulating them might have hurt his chances of accomplishing that. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2026, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/19 "2026-04-14T01:03:58Z")
I’m not sure who you’re responding to or what point you’re trying to make. Too many undefined pronouns for me to decode. On the off-chance you’re responding to me … “Peace in our time” was known to Chamberlain to be a lie. Saying that in public is manipulation. What I was proposing he say was the truth as he understood it. That’s the opposite of manipulation. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2026, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248/20 "2026-04-14T01:15:44Z")
Revisionist history aside, it was Chamberlain who refused to back up France in any confrontation with Hitler over Czechoslovakia, and resisted speeding up British rearmament after Munich. > [@](#): > > Although Britain’s appeasement toward Germany began before Chamberlain became prime minister in 1937, he was its high priest throughout. As chancellor of the Exchequer for most of the 1930s, he oversaw the government’s strict budgetary limits on rearmament. According to one associate, Chamberlain…convinced himself that if he dealt with Hitler in a “practical and businesslike” way, he could convince the Führer of the efficacy of peace and bring him to heel… > In his handling of the Sudetenland crisis, Chamberlain steamrollered his own government just as he had the Czechs. The prime minister did not inform his cabinet or seek its approval before making plans to negotiate personally with Hitler — an action that flouted the conventions of the British governmental system. Nor did he ever consult Parliament. The Czechs lost major defense works post-Munich, aiding Germany’s military buildup. As for Churchill later making excuses for Chamberlain, it was Churchill who in '38 rightly called the Munich deal “an unmitigated disaster”. [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/10/books/review/tim-bouverie-appeasement.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/10/books/review/tim-bouverie-appeasement.html) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/neville-chamberlain-misunderstood-hero/1029248.md?page=2)