World War II/Czechoslovakia

"Chamberlain and the French premier, Edouard Daladier, again acquiesced to Hitler, at Munich on September 29-30, 1938. Backed by Britain and France, under the Munich Accord finalized on the 30th, Germany demanded that Czechoslovakia give up 11,000 square miles of her richest and most defensible territory along with 3.5 million citizens. The transformation was arranged after the Western powers dictated the terms. President Benes conferred with his military and political leadership, concluded that resistance was futile and that surrender to the Diktat was his only alternative. What was left of the country then became known as "Czecho-Slovakia." A pro-German government was installed.

"Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the German High Command, would later testify at nuremberg that "we were extraordinatily happy that it had not come to a military operation because . . . our means of attack agains thte frontier fortifications of Czechoslovakia were insufficient. From a purely military point of view we lacked the means for an attack." Similarly, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein admitted that "there is no doubt whatsoever that had Czechoslovakia defended herself, we would have been held up by her fortifications, for we did not have the means to break through." In fact, the German Army General Staff opposed a European war and was plotting to overthrow Hitler had they been ordered to attack Germany at that time.

"Germany was not then prepared to go to war against a coalition of Czechoslovakia, Britain, and France; however, Hitler's ability to bluff foreign leaders had earned the Third Reich another bloodles victory. Chamberlain gave the Fuhrer what he wanted. The Western powers betrayed Czechoslovakia, the leaders of which then gave up without a fight."

- Stephen Halbrook, "Target Switzerland," pp. 54-55