" Peace for our time " is a declaration made by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in his September 30, 1938 speech on the Munich Accord and the Anglo-German Declaration. The phrase echoes Benjamin Disraeli, who, upon returning from the Berlin Congress in 1878, declared, "I have returned from Germany peacefully for our day". This is especially remembered for its ironic value: less than a year after the deal, the persistent aggression of Hitler and the Polish invasion followed by a declaration of war against Germany by France and England.
This is often misquoted as "peace in our time", which has emerged much earlier in the Book of Common Prayer as "Give peace in our day, O Lord," perhaps based on the 7th century hymn "Da pacem Domine ! in the redeemed nostris, Alleluja ". It is not known how the intentional use of Chamberlain of such a term.
Video Peace for our time
Speech
The Chamberlain plane landed at Heston Aerodrome on September 30, 1938, and he spoke to the crowds there:
The settlement of the Czechoslovakia problem, which has now been achieved, in my view, is only a prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europeans can find peace. This morning I spoke again with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is a paper that bears his name on it and also mine. Some of you, perhaps, have heard what it contains but I just want to read it to you: "Ã,... We consider the agreement signed last night and the British-German Navy Agreement as a symbol of our wishes both people never fight to each other again. "
Later that day he stood outside 10 Downing Street and again read from the document and concluded:
My best friend, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is a peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our heart. Go home and sleep quietly.
Chamberlain's return is not universally accepted. 15,000 people protested the Munich treaty on the same day at Trafalgar Square, three times more than greeted at 10 Downing Street. Because of Chamberlain's manipulation of the BBC, this news was largely suppressed at the time. Labor's spokesman Hugh Dalton publicly stated that a piece of paper symbolized by Chamberlain was "torn from the pages of Mein Kampf." Disbelieving Chamberlain, Isaac Asimov published in July 1939 "Trends", which mentions the World War in 1940; he then wrote "I'm too conservative".
Maps Peace for our time
Cultural reference
Peace In Our Time is the title of the 1947 stage play by NoÃÆ'Â »Coward. Set in an alternate 1940, the Battle of Britain has been lost, Germany has supremacy in the air and the British Isles are under Nazi occupation. Inspired to write this drama in 1946 after seeing the effects of the French occupation, patriotic Coward writes: "I began to suspect the physical effects of a four-year bombing far less undermine the intrinsic character of a nation than the spiritual effects of four years of enemy occupation".
US President John F. Kennedy alluded to a speech in a 1963 American University speech in which he sought "not just peace in our day, but peace of all time." Kennedy has written his college thesis on Chamberlain's relief policy, supported by his father. As president, Kennedy struggled to distance himself from his father's image as an appeaser.
US President Barack Obama also uses the phrase "peace in our day" in his inaugural speech in 2013.
In the fiction of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony Stark (Iron Man) creates Ultron with the aim of having "peace in our day". This causes disastrous consequences for the Marvelic Cinematic Universe.
See also
- Redemption
- European foreign policy of the Chamberlain ministry
References
External links
- Peace in our Time. Speech given in the Munich Treaty Defense, 1938 - the text of an online speech.
- "Peace in Our Time: The Spirit of Munich Lives On", by Michael Johns, Summer Review Policy, Summer 1987.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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