@ -2911,7 +2911,7 @@ It is that on the evening of the 21st a dispatch fell, saying that a trade treat
The documents now known seem to indicate that Germany was very worried about these military negotiations by Moscow, and urged the Soviet side to sign an agreement, multiplying concessions.
Stalin's choice was not made, or at least became apparent, until a few days before the signing.
In the absence of an agreement with Germany, the USSR would have suffered the shock of its armored divisions in the wake of their conquest of Poland, and the immobility of the \enquote{Strange War} augurs how little the Westerners would have done to fix German forces on their side.
In the absence of an agreement with Germany, the USSR would have suffered the shock of its armored divisions in the wake of their conquest of Poland, and the immobility of the \enquote{Phoney War} augurs how little the Westerners would have done to fix German forces on their side.
Who would argue in good faith that Stalin had nothing to fear from the anti-Soviet governments in Paris and London, unchanged since Munich, and that it was pure paranoia on his part to fear a peace negotiated on his back after a sham war?
In this start of a conflict that will kill fifty million people, and in the initial advantage that Germany will enjoy, in particular thanks to this German-Soviet pact, Chamberlain's responsibility is total, that of Daladier not much less. However, Stalin's is not zero.
@ -2938,10 +2938,10 @@ The career that these countries left to Germany and the unprecedented growth of
They are also effects of naivety, in front of a particularly talented staging. The leaders of the great capitalist powers other than Germany have allowed themselves to believe what their class interests would lead them to believe, even against the evidence:
that Hitler was, not a high-flying politician, but a messy adventurer, disposable after use.
\section{The Strange War, so aptly named}
\section{The Phoney War, so aptly named}
If the literature on Munich is relatively abundant and of quality, the Strange War remains the poor relation of the history of the twentieth century, and yet there is no more decisive period.
But above all: anyone interested in Munich should be passionate about the Strange War, which sees the great liberal democracies tearing up their principles even better than when they sold the Sudetenland to Germany for a mess of pottage.
If the literature on Munich is relatively abundant and of quality, the Phoney War remains the poor relation of the history of the twentieth century, and yet there is no more decisive period.
But above all: anyone interested in Munich should be passionate about the Phoney War, which sees the great liberal democracies tearing up their principles even better than when they sold the Sudetenland to Germany for a mess of pottage.
But here it is: war, now, is declared, and we prefer to say that we did it badly (by feeding illusions about the effectiveness of the blockade of Germany and the possibility of defeating it with attrition), rather than admit that we did the opposite of war, that is to say peace, or at least that we assiduously sought it.
This is where the United States comes in. Because, of this peace, they are the main brokers, even if they hid well from it afterwards.
@ -2985,7 +2985,7 @@ Officially, the contacts made in Europe by American emissaries during the Funny
But isn't that what they say when brokerage failed? In this case, it is in Berlin that Welles' welcome is the freshest.
It is that Hitler has chosen: peace, he no longer wants it, he wants to launch his offensive in the West, to strike a decisive blow to the morale of his opponents, as well as to the French army and its prestige.
Thus, in this pseudo-war, especially funny because it is full of pacifist gestures of all kinds, the underestimation of Hitler's abilities becomes particularly criminal. It blinds to lightning that he accumulates slowly, calculating its effects to the millimeter, and triggers suddenly, on May 10\footnote{On German military preparations during the Strange War, cf. F.Delpla, \emph{La ruse nazie/Dunkerque, 24 Mai 1940} (The Nazi cunning/Dunkerque, 24 May 1940), Paris, France-Empire, 1997.}.
Thus, in this pseudo-war, especially funny because it is full of pacifist gestures of all kinds, the underestimation of Hitler's abilities becomes particularly criminal. It blinds to lightning that he accumulates slowly, calculating its effects to the millimeter, and triggers suddenly, on May 10\footnote{On German military preparations during the Phoney War, cf. F.Delpla, \emph{La ruse nazie/Dunkerque, 24 Mai 1940} (The Nazi cunning/Dunkerque, 24 May 1940), Paris, France-Empire, 1997.}.
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