“I’ve got it.”
Those were British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s words as he stepped off the plane at Croydon airport after his meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich in September 1938. What he had was a piece of paper signed by Hitler saying that with the dismembering of Czechoslovakia, Germany had no more territorial ambitions in Europe.
Arthur Herman is the author of Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II. His newest book, Founder’s Fire: From 1776 to the Age of Trump, will be published in April.
