A Lesson of History
KINTNER, WILLIAM R.
A Lesson of History APPEASEMENT-ROAD TO WAR By William Henry Chamberlin Rolton. 215 pp. $3.95. Reviewed by WILLIAM R. KINTNER Foreign Policy Research Center, University of...
...Chamberlin warns, "Once the nation submits to threats in determining its foreign policy the descent into the abyss of slavery will not be long-delayed...
...Chamberlin's analysis of the distinctive psychological traits of the anti-anti-Communist is also well worth reading...
...To illustrate his point, Chamberlin identifies certain well-known Americans who, in his opinion, have long been leaders of the appeasement school...
...or Berlin or Laos...
...Chamberlin brackets the appeasers into two major groups: the Utopians, who tend to believe that the lessons of the past can be brushed aside and that in today's nuclear world compromises can be made on the installment plan without disastrous effects...
...This book was written prior to the erection of the hideous wall in Berlin...
...He believes the appeasers have a right, even a duty, "to advocate what they sincerely believe to be in the best interest of America," but he questions "the wisdom with which this right has been exercised...
...Many contemporary appeasers now operate as supporters of permanent negotiations...
...Under three different administrations the United States Government has at various times acted with firmness in dealing with the Communist challenge...
...at the height of the 1958 Quemoy crisis...
...One example which Chamberlin cites was President Eisenhower's rejection and return to Khrushchev of a note sent to the U.S...
...Its fruits are deterioration of national morale and, ultimately, war under unfavorable circumstances...
...As Khrushchev stated in a speech in Tirana in May 1959, "We do not negotiate on the basis of the 'give and take' principle...
...the lessons of history are rarely read by the appeasers, or if read, are poorly understood...
...Appeasement - Road to War touches on many of the currently important issues in the conflict between Communism and the free world, including disarmament, summit meetings, the permanent nature of the Communist threat and how to deal with it...
...They assert that the nature of politics is bargaining and compromise...
...Reviewed by WILLIAM R. KINTNER Foreign Policy Research Center, University of Pennsylvania...
...Chamberlin also observes that "Why die for Danzig?," the popular slogan of the 1930s, has now changed to "Why die for Quemoy...
...Shortly thereafter, the crisis abated...
...Unfortunately, this point of view does not seem to be prevalent among the Communists...
...and the materialists, who believe that the best way to preserve their own skins is to accept aggression meekly rather than offer resistance to it...
...Among them he includes Walter Lippmann who, he asserts, is "on the record a consistent appeaser and defeatist...
...Eisenhower remarked that Khrushchev's note was "replete with false accusations," that it contained "inadmissible threats" and sent the note back to its sender-the strongest available diplomatic rebuff...
...It would be reduced in numbers if its members took the trouble to read Chamberlin's excellent diagnosis of the hazards of graduated capitulation: "The great fallacy of appeasement is that it does not appease, in the sense of leading to stable and honorable peace...
...Moreover, at a time when Khrushchev has enjoyed considerable success in using "prudent representatives of the bourgeoisie" in advancing his specious strategy of peaceful coexistence, the author's critique of appeasement is most timely-particularly if one agrees with Chamberlin that Khrushchev's version of coexistence amounts to "a series of one-sided retreats and uncompensated concessions...
...In dealing with a man who claims that "What's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable,' we are going to need stern wills and steady nerves...
...It is to be hoped that all in high places will read and take to heart his warning...
...co-author, "A Forward Strategy for America" In his latest book, William Henry Chamberlin calls upon the contemporary advocates of appeasement in the Western world to see the folly of illusionary reasoning before it is too late...
...The essential substance of appeasement, according to Chamberlin, is "retreat under fire, yielding of political and moral concessions without equivalent counter-concessions.' This doctrine is preached under respectable verbal camouflage such as "flexibility," "realism" and "making necessary adjustments...
...Fortunately the appeasement camp is still small...
...Concisely and lucidly, he cuts through the illusion that peace in the nuclear age can be won by some type of accommodation with Communist designs...
...Consequently, he suggests that, as the first antidote to appeasement, responsible citizens should cultivate a reasonably long memory about the meaning of comparable events in the past...
...We have nothing whatsoever 'to give'-we will not make any concessions because our proposals do not form the basis for a barter deal...
...But the West's subsequent failure to contest the erection of the wall can hardly be described as an active defense of its interest in Berlin...
...Since August 1961, the West has given in on many small but successive tests of will in that city...
...Aware of the criticism of the unilateral search for peace, they contend that we should not confuse the search for honorable treaties, dependent upon favorable compromises, with appeasement...
Vol. 45 • December 1962 • No. 26
