Hitler's enabler : Neville Chamberlain and the origins of the Second World War

240 Pages·2015·9.114 MB·English

by  Chamberlain, Neville, Ruggiero, John

HITLER’S ENABLER

HITLER’S ENABLER
Neville Chamberlain
and the Origins of
the Second World War
•
John Ruggiero
Copyright © 2015 by John Ruggiero
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing
from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ruggiero, John, 1933–
Hitler’s enabler : Neville Chamberlain and the origins of the Second World War / John Ruggiero.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4408-4008-1 (print : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4408-4009-8 (e-book)
1. Great Britain—Foreign relations—Germany. 2. Chamberlain, Neville, 1869–1940.
3. Great Britain—Politics and government—1936–1945. 4. Great Britain—Foreign
relations—1936–1945. 5. Germany—Foreign relations—Great Britain. 6. World War,
1939–1945—Causes. 7. World politics—1900–1945. I. Title. II. Title: Neville Chamberlain
and the origins of the Second World War.
DA47.2.R85 2015
940.53'1—dc23 2015022613
ISBN: 978-1-4408-4008-1
EISBN: 978-1-4408-4009-8
19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5
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This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgment vii
1. Chamberlain and the Historians 1
2. Setting the Stage 15
3. The Stage Is Set 33
4. Taking Charge 49
5. Feeding the Beast 67
6. Staying the Course 99
7. A Frightful Gamble 117
8. Danse Macabre 133
9. Perfidious Albion 151
10. Conclusions 171
Notes 189
Bibliography 213
Index 225

Acknowledgment
There are many people whom I would like to acknowledge for making this
book possible. But I would like to single out for special praise my dedicated
administrative assistant, Linda A. Kline, without whom this book would
still be locked in my breast. Her patient handling of my many impossible
demands stands second only to her amazing technical skills, and she has
been of invaluable assistance in getting this book to press.

CHAPTER 1
Chamberlain and the Historians
It would be rash to prophesy the verdict of history, but if full access
is obtained to all the records, it will be seen that I . . . did my best to
postpone, if I could not avert, the war.
Neville Chamberlain, May 25, 1940
History has not been very kind to Neville Chamberlain. His place in
history has fairly well been fixed as an appeaser, the man who pursued
a disastrous policy that failed to prevent, and indeed may have contrib-
uted to the outbreak of the Second World War.1 David Dutton, a leading
revisionist historian, has admitted that after seven decades, the popular
image of Neville Chamberlain is so deeply ingrained that “the historian
is engaged in a losing battle if he thinks he is capable of changing it.”2 Yet
that has not discouraged him, nor a host of revisionist historians, from
attempting to do just that. But Dutton was right: The terms “Munich,”
“appeasement,” and “Chamberlain” have been so ingrained in history that
they can be used interchangeably. Today, the word “appeasement” has
become the third rail of international relations—no statesman will dare
venture anywhere near it, whether justified or not. If appeasement was not
dead before Munich, it certainly should have run its course thereafter. To
this day, these words have become so indelibly linked in the public mind
that, in the words of Lady Macbeth, “all the perfumes of Arabia” will not