No sooner had I read this today:
There is by now an entire book to be written about the way that "Munich," "appeasement," and "Churchill" have been ritually invoked, from Suez to Vietnam to Iraq, so often in false analogy, and so often with calamitous results.
than I saw this:
U.S. President George W. Bush stirred up the campaign to replace him on Thursday, suggesting Democratic front-runner Barack Obama’s pledge to meet Iran’s leader was akin to U.S. appeasement of Nazi Germany before World War Two.
Imagine that.
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George Bush is monumentally ignorant. I think other republicans can come up with even better "appeasement" arguments.
I guess Bush's administration negotiating with North Korea makes Bush an appeaser too.
Then there's that photo of Dick Cheney shaking hands with Saddam Hussein...oh, wait--that was back when Saddam was our friend.
There is at least one academic treatment of the subject of the influence of Munich and other historical analogies on foreign policy making. For those interested: "Analogies At War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965" by Yuen Foong Khong (Princeton University Press, 1992).