Reply #20: Here is a list I compiled of the most influential WWII appeasers

[Minnesota_Lib]

Feel free to send it to her.


UNITED KINGDOM:

STANLEY BALDWIN--Conservative Party, British P.M 1935 to 1937: set the policy of appeasement that Chamberlain later followed; did nothing about German rearmament; did nothing when Hitler invaded the Rhineland; was sympathetic to the fascists in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 – he persuaded 27 countries to sign a Non-Intervention Pact and then stood by and watched as Hitler and Mussolini ignored it and sent military support to Franco; openly said that he would not go to war with Hitler and Mussolini. allowed his appointed secretary, the right-wing, pro-fascist Lord Halifax not only to consort with the Nazis but to then to also propagandize his pro-Nazi message to the British public.

NEVILLE CHAMERLAIN--Conservative Party, British P.M. 1938-1940: supported the fascist Franco; sympathized with Nazi Germany; historically considered the major European force for appeasement; assisted the French right-wing, led by Henri-Philippe Petain and the French right-wing press, in the ouster of their leftist, antifascist, pro-intervention P.M. Leon Blum; signed the Munich Agreement with Hitler and Mussolini; appointed the infamous pro-Nazi Lord Halifax to the vitally important office of Foreign Secretary, a move that allowed Hallifax a wider and more respected stage from which to propagandize for the Nazis.

LORD HALIFAX--British War Secretary and leader of the House of Lords 1935-38, Foreign Secretary, 1938-40: influential right-wing, anti-semitic, pro-fascist admirer of Hitler; became the leading British advocate for appeasement after his famous 1937 meeting with Hitler; “He (Halifax) told me he liked all the Nazi leaders, even Goebbels, and he was much impressed, interested and amused by the visit. He thinks the regime absolutely fantastic."—Halifax confidant Henry Cannon.


FRANCE:

EDOUARD DALADIER--Radical Party (left of center moderate): French P.M. 1933, 1934, 1938-1940: Initially supported Spanish antifascists but under pressure from right-wing members of his government and British P.M. Baldwin began to advocate a policy of neutrality; returned to power after leftist P.M. Leon Blum, who advocated ending France’s non-interventionist policy, was forced out of office by a coalition led by France’s pro-fascist, right-wing press and right-wing politicians such as Henri-Philippe Petain, and aided by the behind-the-scenes support of conservative British P.M. Neville Chamberlain and the British Foreign Office; adopted a policy of full appeasement when he joined Chamberlain in signing the Munich Agreement with Hitler and Mussolini.

HENRI-PHILIPPE PETAIN—Assisted by Chamberlain and the right-wing press, Petain was a leader of the movement to bring down left-wing, anti-fascist P.M. Blum. After Germany overran France, Petain was rewarded by being named P.M of the newly formed right-wing Vichy government. After the war, Petain was found guilty of treason and died in prison in 1951.


SPAIN:

A bunch of international liberals were there fighting the fascists and giving up their lives in the name of freedom while the right-wingers stayed safely at home and vocally and financially supported Franco..


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

• Influential right-wing industrialists and financers such as Irenee du Pont, Prescott Bush and the virulently anti-semitic Henry Ford not only fought publicly to keep America from joining the war against Germany, they actually helped finance Hitler’s war machine..

• The conservative press--led by Henry Luce (who applauded Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia)--worked to influence public opinion in favor of isolationism.

• American hero and right-winger Charles Lindbergh admired the "virility" and "dictatorial direction" of Nazi Germany so much so that he used his substantial influence as a vocal Nazi propagandist.

• The Senate--led by Republican Gerald P. Nye--was determined to remain isolated from the European conflict. Nye and his colleagues spearheaded the Neutrality Act of 1935.

• William Dudley Pelley mobilized like-minded right-wing conservatives into a pro-Nazi legion he called the Silver Shirts and which others referred to as the "Christian American Patriots". By July 1938, he had mailed out 3.5 tons of pro-Nazi, anti-semitic propaganda. After the U.S. joined the war, Pelley was jailed for sedition.

• The godfather of right-wing hate radio, Father Charles Coughlin used his radio show and magazine to stir-up anti-semitic, pro-Nazi sentiment in the U.S.


***Heck, involvement in the war was inevitable, but it looks as if it wasn’t for Democrats and liberals like Franklin Roosevelt—and the bombing of Pearl Harbor by an ally of Germany--we may well have ended up fighting on the wrong side.