Chamberlain is a difficult person to assess historically, yes he did try to prevent the war without actually fighting, but it never should be forgotten that his Conservative government went after the anti-appeasement MPs and tried (did in some cases) to destroy their careers and social standing, and the general (only Churchill at the Admiralty had anything like a war footing going) uselessness of preparation / war activity even after September 1939.HSharp wrote:QUOTE (HSharp @ May 5 2011, 10:17 AM) Chamberlain resigned from office when France was invaded and by that time Poland was already occupied by both Russia and Germany, though his policy of appeasement failed and had he acted sooner then maybe many lives would have been saved, however he tried to avert the bloodiest war in history and even though
A good book on him and what happened in the appeasement years is Lynne Olson's "Troublesome Young Men: the Churchill Conspiracy", it illustrates well what Chamberlain and the the Tory establishment did and the very real achievement of Churchill, Amery, Cartland, MacMillan and the rest in getting rid of a government that would have lost that war.