Three times premier and minister of war, he signed the Munich pact with British prime minister Chamberlain which gave Hitler posession of the Sudetenland.

CNN: Wednesday,

He arrived on September 29, 1938, just as the Munich Pact handed over to Hitler the part of Czechoslovakia the Germans called the Sudetenland.

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He said the pact was one mistake among many, likening it to the Munich agreement of 1938 when Britain and France bullied Czechoslovakia into accepting dismemberment (a dismemberment, Mr Putin spikily pointed out, in which Poland participated).

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If you like closely reasoned historical monographs, you may spend your evenings examining the interplay between the Munich agreement (when Britain and France betrayed Czechoslovakia) and the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (when Hitler and Stalin carved up Europe).

ECONOMIST: Europe.view