They're realists in the sense that Neville Chamberlain might have been considered a realist, i.e. he convinced himself that if the dictators were allowed to expand to their "natural" limits, they'd stop and everyone else would have peace. Chamberlain's attitude seems to have been based on a naïve confidence in human goodness and a fear that the horrors of the First World War could return otherwise. I can't image what motivates these people; they seem to simply be apologists for dictators.
To be fair, Chamberlain wasn't nearly as feckless as popular history depicts him as. Everyone remembers Munich. What most people forget is that in the weeks after Munich, Chamberlain pushed for almost tripling the UK defense budget. At least in that particular instance, I'm pretty sure the reasoning was "stall Hitler until we have time to get our defense setup in order", despite saying peace in our time.
He was too late in coming to that conclusion, but was an intelligent man, and a good one. I think that Churchill described him fairly at his death. I doubt that any of the people we're talking about will merit that kind of eulogy.
They're realists in the sense that Neville Chamberlain might have been considered a realist, i.e. he convinced himself that if the dictators were allowed to expand to their "natural" limits, they'd stop and everyone else would have peace. Chamberlain's attitude seems to have been based on a naïve confidence in human goodness and a fear that the horrors of the First World War could return otherwise. I can't image what motivates these people; they seem to simply be apologists for dictators.
To be fair, Chamberlain wasn't nearly as feckless as popular history depicts him as. Everyone remembers Munich. What most people forget is that in the weeks after Munich, Chamberlain pushed for almost tripling the UK defense budget. At least in that particular instance, I'm pretty sure the reasoning was "stall Hitler until we have time to get our defense setup in order", despite saying peace in our time.
He was too late in coming to that conclusion, but was an intelligent man, and a good one. I think that Churchill described him fairly at his death. I doubt that any of the people we're talking about will merit that kind of eulogy.