Halifax argued that Britain and France would have to fight with them if the Czechs chose not to oppose Germany. His attitude was probably more rooted in politics – the fear of how the government was perceived at home – than strategic disagreements with Chamberlain. He thought that in Eastern Europe there was a confrontation between Germany and the Soviet Union, which Britain had to divert attention from. But he said the “ultimate goal” of the policy should be the “destruction of Nazism.” The cynics thought it was quite opportunistic. One of Chamberlain`s friends concluded that Halifax possessed “aalic qualities” and a capacity for “sublime betrayal.” Yet it was a climate in which several cabinet ministers were considering the resignation and bankers such as Churchill and another future prime minister, Harold Macmillan, were preparing to push for a new government when “Chamberlain reintroduced rats.” The Munich Agreement (Czech: Mnichovska dohoda); in Slovak: Mnechovska dohoda; in German: Munchner Abkommen) or Munchner Verrat (Czech: Mnichovska zrada; The Slovak: Mnechovska zrada) was an agreement reached on 30 September 1938 in Munich by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the Third French Republic and the Kingdom of Italy. It granted Germany the “transfer of the German territory of the Sudetenland” from Czechoslovakia. [1] Most of Europe celebrated the agreement because it prevented the war threatened by Adolf Hitler by allowing the annexation of the Sudetenland by Nazi Germany, a region of Western Czechoslovakia inhabited by more than 3 million people, mainly German-speaking. Hitler declared that this was his last territorial claim in Europe, and the choice seemed to lie between war and appeasement. The Prime Minister`s spectacular triumph proved fleeting.
Within weeks, the colony of Munich dissolved. The referendums never took place and Hitler simply hosted the controversial areas. Some had predicted it all the time. Indeed, Halifax offered little resounding confirmation to Munich when it publicly described the agreement as an “abhorrent choice of evil.” Churchill predicted: “This is just the beginning of the settlement of accounts.” Czechoslovakia was informed by Great Britain and France that it could either oppose Nazi Germany or submit to the prescribed annexes. The Czechoslovakian government single-purposely acknowledged the desperation of the fight against the Nazis, reluctantly capitulated (30 September) and agreed to abide by the agreement. The colony gave Germany, from 10 October, the Sudetenland and de facto control of the rest of Czechoslovakia as long as Hitler promised not to go any further. On 30 September, after some time off, Chamberlain went to Hitler`s house and asked him to sign a peace treaty between the United Kingdom and Germany. After Hitler`s interpreter translated it for him, he was glad to have accepted it. On 29 September, when Chamberlain travelled to Munich for the third time to meet Hitler, he entered a 14-hour hearing in the middle of the night. As part of the agreement, the German-speaking regions of the Sudetenland should be admitted to the Empire and hire an international plebiscite commission elsewhere along the border. Chamberlain and Hitler also signed the Anglo-German declaration affirming “the desire of our two peoples never to go to war again.” The Prime Minister has returned home as a national hero.
During the Second World War, British Prime Minister Churchill, who opposed the agreement when it was signed, decided not to abide by the terms of the post-war agreement and to bring the Sudetenland back to post-war Czechoslovakia.
