"James P. Hogan - The Proteus Operation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

atonement by concluding a naval agreement that permitted unlimited German construction of
warships, including U-boats -- without so much as consulting their French partners.

"Peace at any price," the cry had been. And what was the result? That an extortionate
price had been extracted, there was no doubt: Italy lost from the Allied cause, and Abyssinia
surrendered to brazen, unprovoked aggression; Japan permitted to maraud across China with
impunity; the Rhineland reoccupied by three German battalions flaunting themselves under the very
guns of the French, who had done nothing; preachings of non-intervention in Spain while Franco was
being installed with the help of German bombs and Italian bullets; Austria seized by brute force;
Czechoslovakia abandoned to threats of force. Yes, the price had been high indeed.

And the gain? Not a penny's worth. There would be war yet before the reckoning was done,
Churchill was certain.

In fact, the result had been a grave loss. If there was going to be a war anyway, it would
have been better fought on the terms of the previous September than on those confronting the West
now, in 1939. Czechoslovakia had been intact then, with one of the most capable and well-equipped
armies in Europe. Churchill was convinced that the French should have fought. They should have
fought in September 1938, when the Czechs rejected Hitler's ultimatum to Chamberlain at Godesberg
and mobilized their army, and the British Cabinet was on the verge of rebellion against further
appeasement. Then Russia would have come in through the treaty that pledged her to follow France's
lead -- and the Russians had been eager to act -- after which Britain would surely have been drawn
in, too, even without a treaty obligation. Public opinion would have seen to that, if nothing
else. Then, the chances of crushing Hitlerism might have been good.

Instead, Chamberlain had rushed off, clutching his umbrella, to obey the summons from
Munich, and while he was in the very act of handing the victim over to blackmail, he had publicly
proclaimed his trust in the F?hrer's good will and honesty

"We have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat," Churchill had told the House
afterward, only to be greeted by jeers and a storm of protest. But delirious crowds had welcomed
Chamberlain back from Munich, applauding rapturously when he waved his piece of paper and promised
them "peace
in our time."

In Paris, Frenchmen had wept for joy in the streets as the news spread that war had been
averted. "The fools!" Daladier, the French Premier, muttered as he was being driven back from Le
Bourget airport. "If only they knew what they were cheering."

Churchill sighed, shifted some papers, and took a sip from a glass of Scotch whisky and
water. Reluctant as he was to admit it, he was forced to conclude that his own career, which at
times had appeared quite promising, was leading him now, at age sixty-five, only toward an
outcast's lonely failure. His political burial was already as good as arranged by the architects
of national policy, still persevering in their belief that tolerance and appeasement would
eventually satiate the dictators and win concessions in return. How many times now had the
delusion been exposed for all who wished to see? Yet the blindness remained.

However, the end of a political life didn't mean the end of living, he reflected
philosophically. He had tried his best to uphold what was right as he saw it, and he had never
deviated from the guidance of the moral principles that he believed in. Not many men could say