Munich Agreement and the Events of the 1930s - Essay Example

Topic: Europe Between the wars, 1919-1939 Dear Friends Brothers and Fellow Countrymen, Today is an important day in the history of not only France, but the entire world. Today, our nation enters the tenth month of the year 1938 with a conviction and pride that it has played its part in defending the rights of its brethren nations, and in averting war. War, my friends, is the single most devastating act that has the power to ruin entire nations of the face of this earth. We still haven’t forgotten the scars of the First World War. The mothers haven’t forgotten the sons they have mourned, the wives haven’t forgotten the husbands they have lost and we haven’t forgotten the children the war had orphaned. The nation also remembers the victory and glory that came home to France, but not without a sense of bereavement. Indeed, the victory of 1914 came to France at a very gory price. Today, my dear friends, is the day France refused to repeat history. Today is the day the French refused to pay in the blood of its brothers for another victory. Today is the day France stands up in defiance of injustice and upholds the flag of peace to ensure peace and stability in the region. Today is the day, I, Edouard Daladier stand in front of the French parliament, having signed the historic Munich Agreement. This is a time to be celebrated. The world has learned to resolve its problems without shooting each other to smithereens. Statesmen of the civilized world, namely Britain, France, Germany and Italy, have learned to sit down and talk in peace to seek solutions for world peace, and that, I believe, is one of the greatest successes of the Munich Agreement. I am not blind to the fact that the Munich Agreement is plagued with controversy. Opponents of the agreement are keen to point fingers at the French government for betraying the people of Czechoslovakia and for supporting Germany in its evil designs. I feel that such concerns of the opponents of the Munich Agreement reek more of anti-French propaganda than of justice and truth. Myopic viewpoints would stand in the way of Britain and France, the two nations that are willing to sacrifice a lot in return of peace in Europe. Europe cannot afford another war, and Britain and France are aware of this reality. Germany’s aggressiveness must be appeased to achieve peace in Europe, and the Munich Agreement is a symbol of that very appeasement, which I believe all present in this room must not only appreciate, but acclaim as a remarkable effort on part of the French Government. Mes freres, the French nation has entrusted my office of the prime minister of france to not only represent them, but to give them access to the truth. Today I speak before you to present nothing but that. The state of Czechoslovakia has transgressed. It has denied its Sudeten population the autonomy it has desired for so long. The sacrifices the Sudeten have made and the atrocities the Czechs have committed against them are an open secret. The world has witnessed the cries of help from those who wish to cease their association with Czechoslovakia and join Germany. Why should the wishes of the public be denied? We see the Sudeten demand for autonomy as a justified demand, and one that the Czech government should be keen in advancing to its people. If an ethnic group finds belonging with Germany, it should be allowed to secede with it. The Munich Agreement, my friends, guarantees just that. The Agreement however, is not drawn simply to support the ideology backing the liberation of the Sudeten Germans. On 16th September of this same year, it is known to all that our government, in collaboration with the British government, presented a proposal to the President of Czechoslovakia, Edvard Benes. We presented a very reasonable proposal, which asked the Czech Government to hand over to Germany all those areas that are populated by more than fifty percent Sudeten Germans. In return, Czechoslovakia will be allowed to retain its independence. Such reasonable terms of the treaty were ignorantly rejected by the Czechs – an act that made Europe teeter at the edge of war once again. The situation became even more critical when Italy’s Mussolini wrote to Hitler on the 18th of September, 1938 about his support of the Sudeten cause. Mussolini’s involvement in the issue meant an even greater prospect of destruction if war was to strike, making it mandatory for Britain and France to avert such a happening. Come 21st September and we see the flippant nature of Czechoslovakians. They agree to the terms proposed by Britain and France, which they once vehemently rejected. However, Adolf Hitler served to escalate the situation by adding a new set of demands – he called for an outright dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. The new demands, I admit, prove to be irrational and hint of higher and deeper motives in sight of the German government. I, as the French premier, am concerned with only this. That France offered a plausible and practical solution to Czechoslovakia, which they refused to pay heed to. Today, the Czechs no longer have the same options available. War can only be averted in Europe if the Czechs surrender to the German demands, and the Munich Agreement ensures exactly that will happen. For those who criticize the French for betraying Czechoslovakia, I ask them one question. How is it that we have betrayed them? Have we not time and again said that we will support the people of Czechoslovakia in their demands, but will never risk going to war? The Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet has been very assertive about this point as well. Averting war by appeasing Germany is the top priority of the governments of both Britain and France. I know our French countrymen have been rallying in support of the Czechs, but that is mainly because they rally around sympathy and pity, and not on facts and truths. It is time that all of France embraces the justice of the Munich Agreement. To Europe’s peace! Works cited Agnew, Hugh L. C. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Stanford, Calif: Hoover Institution Press, 2004. Print. Benamou, G.-M. The Ghost of Munich. London: Quercus, 2008. Print. Faber, David. Munich, 1938: Appeasement and World War Ii. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009. Print. Lukes, Igor, and Erik Goldstein. The Munich Crisis, 1938: Prelude to World War Ii. London: Frank Cass, 1999. Print. Read More