Defence and strategy

Pavel HLAVÁČEK

In the following article we argue that the Munich Agreement (1938) – or generally the policy of appeasement itself – has been misunderstood and has been given negative content only due to the horrors of the Second World War. The lesson of Munich after 1945 led to false conclusion that the only way one might face dictatorship is never to negotiate. All US presidents – with the exception of Jimmy Carter – used Munich analogy in order to legitimize their foreign policy. This logic, we might call the Munich paradigm, played an important role in decision making process before the US interventions in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq (twice) and Kosovo. We believe that any analogy to Munich (or World War Two) is not adequate. It is time to think whether such analogy should not be avoided (not only) in the American foreign and security debate.