July 1, 2019
An account of Britain and France's betrayal of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. A Cambridge graduate and Czech scholar, Caquet (The Orient, the Liberal Movement, and the Eastern Crisis of 1839-41, 2016)--who speaks Czech, Slovak, French, and German--writes that Czechoslovakia, formed after the 1918 breakup of Austria-Hungary, was a vibrant, prosperous democracy. It contained several non-Czech ethnic groups, including German-speakers (Sudetens), about 20 percent of the population. Though never part of Germany proper, Sudetens participated in the government and were not persecuted. When Hitler came to power, he proclaimed that all Germans yearned to join the Reich. With Nazi backing, a Sudeten quasi-Nazi party formed, and its violent tactics soon made it the dominant political force. With Nazi media full of purely fictional accounts of atrocities against Sudetens and Hitler demanding self-determination, Britain and France realized that there was a "Sudeten problem" and offered to negotiate a solution. No one at the time knew that Hitler had ordered Sudeten leaders to make impossible demands. In September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew for his first meeting with Hitler, coming away full of praise for his statesmanship. Returning after dragooning the reluctant French and even more reluctant Czechs to agree to cede lands with more than 50 percent German-speakers, he was flabbergasted when Hitler refused. War seemed imminent, which, Caquet emphasizes, might have been a good thing. The Czechs had a fortified frontier and a formidable army, Germany's generals believed the Wermacht was not prepared, and the Soviet Union declared its support for the Czechs (it became a German ally a year later). Sadly, Chamberlain was indefatigable, warning French leaders that Britain would not support them in any war. Eagerly accepting Mussolini's offer to help, he returned a few days later and gave Hitler everything he wanted. With access to new material, the author delivers what is likely the definitive history of a disgraceful event. A book both insightful and painful to read.
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July 8, 2019
In this accessible and well-written history, Caquet (The Orient, the Liberal Movement, and the Eastern Crisis of 1839–41) analyzes the 1938 Munich Pact, which ceded the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia to Germany, from the perspective of Czechoslovakia. Caquet posits that, for the Czechoslovakians, “the tragedy of Munich... rested ultimately in an inability to communicate the right message, an almost nightmarish powerlessness” to explain their understanding of the situation. He follows Czechoslovakian political figures, including president Edvard Beneš, premier Milan Hodža, and foreign minister Kamil Krofta, during the months preceding the pact, through the failed diplomatic attempts to convince Britain and France to support a Czechoslovakian armed defense against any Nazi territorial grab, and then their floundering as Britain, France, and Germany determined the nation’s fate. Along with vividly explaining the political climate, diplomatic negotiations, and the pact’s immediate aftermath, Caquet argues against long-held justifications, for example that the pact provided “the Allies valuable time to rearm.” He also posits that an earlier Allied mobilization to protect Czechoslovakian soldiers and munitions manufacturers could have reduced the Reich’s overall destructive capabilities. Caquet translates original Czechoslovakian sources along with drawing on English-language histories, giving the book fresh perspectives and person-on-the-street recollections. This is an intelligent and valuable addition to WWII history.