Dark Future for Czechoslovakia: American and Polish Diplomats during the Munich Crisis

Abstract

The American Envoy in Prague Wilbur John Carr used for his reports a variety of sources including research in the Sudeten area. He was objective and had sincere compassion with Czechoslovakia and its people. Carr was very strong in his statement that the bad treatment of Sudeten Germans by the Czechs was not proven; he reported on Nazi propaganda and provocations supported by German offices. Former U.S. President Herbert Hoover, U.S. Ambassador in Berlin Hugh R. Wilson, the Runciman mission and many journalists visited the U.S. Legation in Prague where George Frost Kennan was assigned as a junior diplomat. Joseph P. Kennedy was American Ambassador in London who became an advocate of Munich Agreement hoping to protect the peace, yet his efforts were often contradictory. William Christian Bullitt was American Ambassador in Paris. He wrote that French determination to keep its obligation was mixed with worries from another major armed conflict. He reported in detail on the very anti Czechoslovak position of Polish Ambassador Juliusz Łukasiewicz; among the most prominent journalist he met was Walter Lippmann who was pesimistic about the future of Czechoslovakia. A policy of non-involvement in European affairs and of isolationism gave the reports of American diplomats a high degree of objectivity. Experienced, intelligent, well informed diplomats were, however, despite all the information they had, hardly able to stop the catastrophe which was approaching.