In modern European diplomacy there is no dirtier word than "appeasement." It means giving in to brutal dictators, surrendering weakly to bullying force.
Above all it is associated with the 1938 Munich agreement when the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, seemed to feebly give in to the outrageous demands of Adolf Hitler and allow the violent annexation of Sudeten Czechoslovakia to proceed without protest.
Those who supported his policy were denounced as weak Municheers, even as Nazi sympathizers, and Chamberlain's reputation was destroyed, seemingly forever.
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