r/AskReddit • u/DrCompenomics • 12h ago

Who’s the best real-life example of “you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain,” and what happened?

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u/Eldias 5h ago

This is why comments on reddit bemoaning "appeasement" drive me crazy. The heads of Europe would have been dragged in to the streets and shot had they openly talked about war to stop Germany a single moment sooner than they did.

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u/nolok 5h ago edited 3h ago

Exactly, Chamberlain coming back with "war" would mean Chamberlain in a cell or hanged. That guy had no choice, which doesn't change that it was still the bad choice

People saying the opposite are clamoring for politics starting a war against the majority wish of their own people and I don't think they thought that through...

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u/axeil55 3h ago

And to give Chamberlain some grace he knew that the UK (and France) were completely unable to fight at the time of the Munich Conference. He sold "peace in our time" as the best of a bad situation and then started directing a lot of defense actions in case Germany tried something.

It was a fairly good play in a rough situation.

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u/Tim-oBedlam 3h ago

Their biggest mistake was not rolling into the Ruhr when Germany invaded Poland. The "peace in our time" like you said bought Britain time to build up arms, which came in handy in 1940.

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u/OldAccountIsGlitched 1h ago

Britain wasn't ready to back up France and French doctrine wasn't very mobile. Not to mention Stalin started pulling shit almost immediately. It's an easy decision to make in hindsight. But I can understand why the French pulled back.

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u/Mabfred 2h ago

Well, it might seem so if you are British, but it was part of the reason, why Czechoslovak public opinion was much more open to Soviets after the war. Sure, the Soviets shortly showed their real intentions, but that did not much help to cover the "Munich Betrayal".
The feeling of betrayal by UK and France is relevant to this day - I believe it is one of the factors playing into the anti-EU sentiment of the West being callous and not really our ally (which is a narrative strongly pushed by the Russian propaganda).

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u/axeil55 2h ago

Oh yeah if you were Czechoslovak I can imagine it would be rather infuriating and build some deep resentment and I don't blame them for it. They were abandoned and that sucked.

As an aside, I've visited Prague and it was probably my favorite city I've ever been to. Absolutely wonderful place.

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u/inevitablelizard 3h ago

Chamberlain also made a lot of efforts to prepare us for the outbreak of war. There is an argument that he was simply buying time and didn't actually believe it would work long term.

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u/Scuterius_Floridae 2h ago

Id be wary if I had to fight in the Somme and lived