In the film 'Darkest Hour' (Oscar winner), main character is about British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Yet, his predecessor Neville Chamberlain serves as a historical contrast to Churchill's heroic reputation. In modern history, Churchill always outshined Chamberlain. With his appeasement policy, Chamberlain is widely maligned. The name of Chamberlain and Munich Agreement are often taken as synonymous with cowardice. History is merciless. Chamberlain bears notoriety far more than what he should take.
But what really happened?
During World War II, Chamberlain and Churchill had jointly led the war against Nazi Germany. The political party rivalries in Britain had always been very intense. The truth is that Chamberlain was still the leader of the Conservative Party, even after resignation as the Prime Minister. At that time, Churchill was supported by Labor Party and Liberal Party members only. Chamberlain had been worrying this situation to weaken the government power; therefore, on various occasions, he encouraged the Conservative Party members to back up Churchill. Throughout the wartime, Chamberlain had been an important member of the British War Cabinet, and heading the Cabinet in the Premier Churchill's absence, until he suffered from cancer and had to resign the position.
Many people remark the war, but much overlook a fact that war is highly demanding for money and economic foundation. Churchill's victory over Nazi Germany after the Great Depression, it was indeed beneficial from an economic base that Chamberlain had established. He adopted an economic policy known as 'rationalization'. In the economic depression, the government purchased obsolete factories and mines, and then made them close-down. This approach created conditions for new factories to set up through capital injection. Thanks to this policy, by the year of 1938, the British economy gradually emerged out of the Great Depression. The factories were equipped with the world's latest technologies and had the capability to produce the newest weapons. Ironically, the Churchill's supporters of Labor Party condemned Chamberlain's effort as 'warmonger'.
At all times, the Munich Agreement is regarded by historical narratives as the taint for Chamberlain. In particular, after the situations of the Norwegian Campaign being deteriorated, Chamberlain's opponents took this opportunity to attack and severely criticized Chamberlain's appeasement policy so-called. It is said when Chamberlain left the Parliament, the representatives who sit in the back row vocalized a unison chant of 'Go! Go! Go!' so much hurt his self-esteem.
Even so, on the second day of the Parliament's vote for a motion with no confidence in Chamberlain administration, 40 members who originally had supported Chamberlain's policy voted against him, but in the end Chamberlain still won the vote of confidence. Chamberlain and his policies were generally welcomed and supported by British people at the time. During the negotiations of the Munich Agreement, even a furious Hitler admitted that '(Chamberlain) you are the only person in the world who can make me give in'.
Nowadays, those gradually disclosed government documents clearly proved, in 1938, Britain was not ready for war. Chamberlain's appeasement policy so-called paid the price, but help Britain get more time. Afterwards, the Chamberlain government accelerated the plan to reform the British military's armament, and improved the renewals of radar defense system and air force equipment. This greatly guaranteed Great Britain's survival in difficult times of World War II.
As a matter of fact, the support given to Chamberlain in the British politics at that time was unambiguous. Churchill was merely looked as a "temporary Prime Minister" who took power just because of a sudden passing-away of Chamberlain. The truth in history is, even if Chamberlain had resigned his position due to illness, with special permits authorized by the King and Churchill, the official documents were still forwarded to Chamberlain for approval, so that he could understand the situation of the country. Thus, Chamberlain's historical status is very different from what we learned before.
Chamberlain is one of the three Prime Ministers in British history, who did not graduate from Oxford University. Reviewed today, Chamberlain's policies were rather reasonable. The highest leader in one country, undoubtedly, first shall bear the responsibility of protecting his country, instead of other countries. Chamberlain did nothing wrong. His silence was not because of his health, but his courage in the face of history. It is why the world history scholars present positive appraisals more and more to Chamberlain.
Final Analysis Conclusion:
It would be easy to make mistakes, repeat other people's opinions, and have no awareness eventually, if one looks anything out of the historical background.
