Doubts about Munich
From Dr Lisl Klein Sir Frank Johnson (Shared opinion, 24 August) leaves two things out of account in his support of the Munich Agreement of 1938. The first is that, if Hitler had gone to war against Czechoslovakia by invading the Sudetenland, France and the USSR were pledged by treaty to help her. Of course, we don't know that they would have kept their pledge, but we also don't know that they wouldn't.
The second is the opposition to Hitler which existed in Germany. Senior figures in Germany had at first tried to persuade the British government to speak out against what was happening and then, when they failed in this, were preparing to overthrow Hitler if he went to war. In this they counted on support from the many German people who did not want another war. But the Munich agreement cut the ground from under the opposition's feet, by giving Hitler what he wanted without a war.
All this is painfully documented in Patricia Meehan's book The Unnecessary War. The phrase was Churchill's. And there is no parallel in any of it to the present situation in relation to Iraq.
Lisl Klein
London W2
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