History repeats itself – Ukraine is Putin's Czechoslovakia

There is no USA to come to Europe's rescue this time

- BY VIJAYA CHANDRASOMA

The Munich Agreement, signed in September 1938, permitted Hitler to annex Sudetenland in exchange for a pledge of peace. Sudetenland was a border region of Czechoslovakia with a significant German-speaking population.

The Crimean Peninsula and the Donbas region, areas of Ukraine with high Russian-speaking populations, is now under the control of Russia.

The primary Munich Agreement was signed by UK Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, French Prime Minister, Edouard Daladier and Italian Dictator, Benito Mussolini.

Under the terms of the agreement, German troops were allowed to occupy Sudetenland; in return, Hitler agreed to stop any further territorial expansion.

Significantly, representatives from Czechoslovakia, the sovereign nation whose land was being carved up by foreign parties, was not invited to the conference.

Following the Munich Agreement, Chamberlain and Hitler signed a separate one-page, joint Anglo-German declaration, that "both nations considered the Munich Agreement as symbolic of their desire never to go to war with one another again".

Chamberlain and Peace of Our Time

On his return to London, Chamberlain was hailed as the hero who guaranteed "Peace for our time". However, according to his book, Mein Kampf, Hitler had a long-term plan for a German empire in Europe long before the Munich Agreement was signed in 1938.

Chamberlain's "our time" lasted till March, 1939, just six months later, when Hitler occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. Britain and France declared war on Germany when Hitler invaded Poland in September, 1939.

World War II began in 1939, and the Germans were well on their way to victory, until the United States of America entered the war in 1941. There is no doubt that Germany would have gained control of a great part of Europe if not for the intervention of the Americans.