[StGeorge]

Originally Posted by angus58

You are correct that the precursors of what was to come were there for anyone with eyes to see long before the war started, and Chamberlain's foreign policy of appeasement and his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938 were fundamental errors of judgment which strengthened Hitler's hand and his belief that Britain would not intervene if they invaded Poland and continued their aggressive occupation of neighbouring countries. However, there was still a good chance that if Britain had engaged in diplomatic talks with Hitler in 1940 the worst of the atrocities may have been averted.

Its unfortunate that we will never know. Same as we will never know whether Saddam was intending to build bridges with the world and then become the next Nobel Peace winner. Who knows?

I think the politics of the time were very different to today as armourment mobilization and military means were the predominant policy of most of the nations at the time. But i cant believe that there wasnt at least some negotiations and diplomacy via all those mentioned before who were sympathetic to Hitler like the Prince of Wales etc.