France And Munich Before And After The Surrender (Paperback)

FRANCE AND MUNICH BKFORK AND AKTKR Till, SURRKNDKR by ALEXANDER WlRTH It was the opinion of Marclan that war should be avoided as ton UH it is K ssihU to preserve it . secure uml honotirnblw pence but it was HUuxvise his opinion that ponce cannot be honourable or secure, if the Jioveroitfn betrays a pusIHaninunis avt, rsion It vur. Thi. s tintiptnatc cotiniK Uetate. l his reply to the cletuunds of Attiia t who insolently pressed the payment t f the annual tribute. ttrttf Mifl of f te Ktimatt ttwpire, . hap. xxxv. HAKPKR AND BROTH KRS PUBLISHI. US NI. W YORK AND LONDON Printed in Gutrtutyt C.., Mritisk by The 6Yw and GmxM Ltd. To NANCY ALEXANDRA PREFACE T oiiRNAuTs books are best-sellers nowadays and in many J cases deservedly so. But this will not be a bestseller, I nave not attempted to give a brilliant and lively account of my experiences and sensations at the sight and sound of crumbling bastions. The book is mainly concerned with some of the chief causes of these catastrophes, rather than with the catastrophes themselves Except for a trip to Spain, I Hhave lived in Paris almost without moving an ordinary staff correspondent, with his regular telephone call to London at eight oclock every night, Saturdays cxceptcd f Allo 9 alia wtw abonntnwnt de Londresl Could anything be less adventurous than the word abannementt And few capitals in Europe have, in the last two years, provided less colour stuff to the papers than Paris. The task I set myself was a more modest and less exciting one. Having watched France, day after day, for over ten years, I felt that I must try to understand the rather long and at times almost imperceptible process by which France came to accept Munich so contraryto all that she had stood for since the War and also the process by which she consciously con tributed to the downfall of the Spanish Republic What was this double political and psychological process In this book I have tried to answer this question M Philippe lamour once answered it with the simple phrase triomphe dt la facility There is some truth in it but it is not the whole truth. The question, as will be seen, is rather more com plicated, I am not apologising for being sometimes a little long windeda charge that may perhaps be brought against me. The Munich crisisboth before and after Septemberis such an outstanding landmark in the life of France that every little human detail every little newspaper cutting throwing some light on the workings of French minds during those days is of some interest. PREFACE What is happening in France though a country km dynamic than many others, and so less exciting on the face of it is of infinite importance to England, to the world and to our western civilisation, Including the very fact that she i not dynamic 1 in the totalitarian sense This is not a polemical book and I do not call anybody names. In so far as the facts are known and especially in the history of the Czech crisis there are still a few gaps and a few obscuritiesthis book is mainly an examination of French foreign policy during the past eighteen month, and of the currents of French opinion in relation to the tragic events of 1938 and the early part of 1959 If, in spite of the modest limits of my task, and in spite oC my desire to be objective perhaps an absurd ambition nowadays, I have at times spoken with some bitterness, it was because the period covered in this book will probablylong be remembered as a time when the radiance of France had grown dim n seldom before. And to anyone who loves France and all that she represents to the world, it was often painful to watch. But the revival of France, with all her immense spiritual forces, is in progress once again...