Ten Propositions about Munich 1938. On the Fateful Event of Czech and European History – without Legends and National Stereotypes

0523208 - ÚSD 2020 RIV CZ eng J - Článek v odborném periodiku
Smetana, Vít
Ten Propositions about Munich 1938. On the Fateful Event of Czech and European History – without Legends and National Stereotypes.
Czech Journal of Contemporary History. Roč. 7, č. 7 (2019), s. 5-14. ISSN 2336-3142
Institucionální podpora: RVO:68378114
Klíčová slova: Munich agreement * appeasement * the lessons of Munich
Obor OECD: History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings)
Způsob publikování: Open access
http://www.usd.cas.cz/casopis/czech-journal-of-contemporary-history-vii-2019/

This essay examines, in ten clearly formulated propositions, the causes and the long-term impact of the Munich Agreement of September 1938. This complex theme is approached through not purely national lenses. The term „betrayal” as a dominant label of the actions of the two West European democratic powers is thus questioned. The author claims that the British and French unwillingness to go to war because of Czechoslovakia’s border regions is, in the light of previous historical developments, understandable and, in a way, even rational. He also points out certain deficiencies in the Czechoslovak treatment of its German minority. At the same time, Czechoslovakia’s political leaders were playing a strange game with their people in September 1938, alternately stirring up and moderating their patriotic feelings – depending on where the behind-the-scenes negotiations on Czechoslovak border regions were heading at a given moment. Also the alleged Soviet preparedness to come to Czechoslovakia’s assistance in September 1938 is more than questionable. Stalin intended to intervene only in a European war, not to help lonesome Czechoslovakia. Nonetheless, Munich has had, and unfortunately continues to have, a fundamental influence on the Czech „mental map” of Europe.
Trvalý link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0307586