War, Peace and France

Thursday, February 20, 2003; Page A38

I didn't get the point Justin Vaisse was trying to make in his Feb. 15 op-ed column, "Merci for the French Correction."

Dictators and tyrants, regardless of nationality, understand power. They also understand how to manipulate public opinion and appeal to the better nature of those on whose necks they intend to plant their boots. Even the French translation must suggest that is serious business. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Marshal Philippe Petain learned the hazards of accommodation, regardless of how intellectually and diplomatically appealing it may be. Not opposing terror now increases the likelihood it will become a permanent part of the future.

CLIFFORD J. EHRLICH

Bethesda

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So Justin Vaisse learned in school that France and Britain declared war on Nazi Germany in September 1939, while America passed isolationist laws and waited until the Pearl Harbor attack before joining the fray.

He should study the policy of the French diplomats during the eight years before 1939 when they allowed Hitler to build his war machine unhindered by the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations or the French army. Then as now the mob wanted "peace."

When Germany under Hitler rearmed in violation of the Versailles Treaty, France and Britain did nothing. When German troops marched into the Rhineland in violation of the treaty, France and Britain did nothing. When Hitler threatened war over the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier went to Munich, where they not only refused to support Czechoslovakia but, in the name of "peace," helped Hitler dismember it.

Can any Frenchman or Briton forget the image of Chamberlain waving his piece of paper and claiming he had achieved "peace in our time"? As Winston Churchill observed at the time, "You have traded Czechoslovakia for peace -- soon you shall have neither."

If Germany and France don't wish to disarm Saddam Hussein, that is their business. But spare us the preaching about their higher calling to preserve the peace and protect us all from provoked terrorists who will no doubt flock to Osama bin Laden by the thousands. To borrow an expression from President Bush, watching French diplomacy at work is really like watching a rerun of a very bad movie.

BILL BACH

Gaithersburg