Editing Munich Agreement (section)

===Quotations from key participants===

{{Main|Peace for our time}}

[[File:Protectorate Of Bohemia and Moravia.png|thumb|Map of the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]]]]

Germany stated that the incorporation of Austria into the Reich resulted in borders with Czechoslovakia that were a great danger to German security, and that this allowed Germany to be encircled by the Western Powers.{{sfn|Müller|1943|pp=116–130}}

Neville Chamberlain announced the deal at [[Heston Aerodrome]] as follows:

{{blockquote|... the settlement of the Czechoslovak problem, which has now been achieved is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace. This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you, perhaps, have already heard what it contains but I would just like to read it to you: '&nbsp;... We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.'<ref name="OxQuote">[[The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations]]</ref>}}

Later that day he stood outside 10 Downing Street and again read from the document and concluded:

{{blockquote|My good friends, for the second time in our history a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time." (Chamberlain's reference to [[Disraeli]]'s return from the [[Congress of Berlin]] in 1878)<ref name="OxQuote" /><ref name="number10">{{cite web|title=Neville Chamberlain|publisher=UK government|url=http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/neville-chamberlain|access-date=2008-09-23|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402040124/http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/neville-chamberlain|archive-date=2 April 2012|df=dmy-all}}</ref>}}

[[Winston Churchill]], denouncing the Agreement in the House of Commons on 5 October 1938,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/disaster-of-the-first-magnitude.html|title=National Churchill Museum|access-date=1 October 2016}}</ref> declared:

{{blockquote|We have suffered a total and unmitigated defeat... you will find that in a period of time which may be measured by years, but may be measured by months, Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the Nazi régime. We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude... we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road... we have passed an awful milestone in our history, when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged, and that the terrible words have for the time being been pronounced against the Western democracies: "Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting." And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.}}

On 13 August 1938, prior to the conference, Churchill had written in a letter to [[David Lloyd George]]:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotations/135-quotes-falsely-attributed|title=The Churchill Center|access-date=1 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005020411/https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotations/135-quotes-falsely-attributed|archive-date=5 October 2016}}</ref>
{{blockquote|England has been offered a choice between war and shame. She has chosen shame, and will get war.}}