Opinion of Neville Chamberlain

[President Johnson]

Poll inspired by the newly released film Munich - The Edge of War.

Actually difficult to rate on FF/HP terms in my opinion. I think he definitely acted in good faith hoping to prevent a war, but on the other hand, willingly surrendered to Hitler's territorial demands in 1938 and lacked foresight what was about to come although the signs were there. So if forced to chose, I'm voting HP.

I still find it unfortunate he died just months after leaving office in 1940, long before the war reached its final stages.

[TheReckoning]

Nice Guy, FF

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

FF. He was far from some vile person who stood out for naivity or whatnot. Prevailing attitudes of the day didn't want another bloody war in Europe that might render their sons dead in the field. Huge numbers of people wanted peace, only problem that Adolf Hitler was not one of them. Not going ahead with war was a mistake in retrospect, but only huge amounts of hindsight could inform that, and as they say, hindsight is 20/20.
Chamberlain acted quickly and vigorously against Hitler when the illusion of a man who allegedly just wanted to unify Germans under his banner was shattered.

[Conservatopia]

HP. Even on a personal level he wasn't very nice. Look up what Attlee had to say about him.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

HP. Even on a personal level he wasn't very nice. Look up what Attlee had to say about him.

There's also his private comment about Labour voters: 'but they ARE scum'. Certainly not a universal sentiment amongst senior Conservatives of the era, his own brother included.

[Klobmentum Mutilated Herself]

FF, not because I actually think he's a FF, but because his almost universally negative reputation is based on a major misnomer. Chamberlain didn't pursue appeasement because he was afraid of a negative reaction from Brits exhausted from war, nor did he think Hitler was acceptable or at least appease-worthy. Chamberlain knew the war had to happen, he knew it would happen and that Britain had to be on the frontlines of the war. But he also knew that Britain had to rebuild its military capabilities before they could beat Germany, and he knew that building the proper alliance would take time thar they didn't have. He didn't appease Hitler; he stalled. He knew history would view him as a coward while viewing Churchill as a hero, and did it anyway because it had to be done; Churchill knew this too.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

HP. Even on a personal level he wasn't very nice. Look up what Attlee had to say about him.

I was not aware of this.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Didn’t he and Halifax want to surrender to Hitler after the fall of France and tried to bring down Churchill’s government for wanting to fight on . Massive HP then

[Senator Incitatus]

British, horrible.

[Conservatopia]

People with doubts as to whether or not Chamberlain was a good guy would do well to check out the Norway Debate.

The Norway Debate (and its background right back to the Baldwin govt) also illustrate what great men Churchill and Attlee were.  Attlee really shone in this debate.

[beesley]

I resist my urge to say that he is 10 times the leader compared to our current Prime Minister, because that would be motivated by hate rather than any answer to the question, but yeah, not great. As mentioned, a generally dislikeable figure, despite being a slight bogeyman as far as history is concerned.

But I suspect he inherited that dislikeability from his father - but just lacked the achievements to redeem himself (particularly if you emphasise his father's municipal career).

[Sir Mohamed]

HP. A tragic figure who was pretty much in denial about the danger posed by the Nazis. And just surrendering territories for appeasement wasn't that great either, although it bought the UK some time to build up defense capabilities.