I trust that a graduate student some day will write a doctoral essay on the influence of the Munich analogy on the subsequent history of the twentieth century. Perhaps in the end he will conclude that the multitude of errors committed in the name of Munich may exceed the original error of 1938.

Summary

This quote by American historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. suggests that the negative repercussions caused by the Munich analogy, the belief that appeasement leads to disaster, far outweigh the initial error made in the Munich Agreement of 1938. Schlesinger predicts that a future graduate student might research this topic and ultimately find that the mistakes made in subsequent historical events by using Munich as a guiding principle exceeded the consequences of the original error made during the Munich Agreement.

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