78. Which British Prime Minister infamously negotiated with Adolf Hitler in 1938 for, as he said then, "peace for our time", less than a year before Hitler started World War II?
From Quiz Historically Inadequate
Answer:
Neville Chamberlain
The Munich Agreement (between France, Germany, Britain and Italy) was an attempt to buy Hitler off by letting him have the Sudetenland - the economic and defensive mainstay region of Czechoslovakia - if Hitler would promise to be satisfied with that. Czechoslovakia (today the Czech Republic and Slovakia) was not consulted.
On 30 September 1938 Neville Chamberlain announced to crowds outside Buckingham Palace that he had secured "peace for our time".
In fact, Hitler regarded Chamberlain - and the Agreement - with contempt. Within six months Hitler had effectively annexed the remainder of Czechoslovakia, and almost exactly 11 months after the Munich Agreement, on 1 September 1939, Hitler's Germany invaded Poland. Britain declared war on Germany, honouring their treaty with Poland (and by now realising that Hitler would have to be stopped by force), two days later, on the 3rd September, 1939.
Asquith, MacDonald and Churchill all served as Prime Minister in the first half of the 20th Century.