The problem is that everybody’s calling it appeasement, without, it seems, taking the time to learn what it means.

Chris Matthews recently took right-wing radio host Kevin James to task on this point — for foaming “appeasement” at the mouth but not knowing who Neville Chamberlain was [transcript]. But even Matthews didn’t get it quite right (he had said that appeasement was not talking with Hitler but giving away a piece of Czechoslovakia).

The problem with this argument is that the Munich Agreement was signed on September 30, 1938, and World War II started on September 1, 1939. What Chamberlain actually did was buy England a year that she badly needed.

Pat Buchanan lays this out in a new piece on AntiWar.com. Because we have not heard the end of this “appeasement” talk, I recommend you research this issue and reading Buchanan’s article would be a good start.

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