Peace Speeches by Ahmadinejad, Hitler, and Chamberlain; Winston Churchill's Response to Munich

Issue 2, Spring 2010

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, 2010 (excerpted): “I hope this initiative will lay a solid foundation for the spread of Nowruz* culture that stands for peace, amity, dynamism, constructive cooperation and sustainable security across the world....It is all the more regrettable that terrorism has turned into a tool to subdue nations....May God the Almighty bless the entire world with peace and justice.”
(Ahmadinejad wrote Ban Ki-moon ahead of a nuclear summit in Washington and asked him to condemn the United States and NATO for supporting anti-Iranian terrorists.)

* Nowuz (Persian "New Day", originally "New Light") is a traditional ancient Iranian festival which celebrates the start of the Iranian new year. Nowruz is also widely referred to as the Persian New Year and also marks the first day of spring. The UN's General Assembly in 2010 recognized the International Day of Nowruz, describing it a spring festival of Persian origin. Retrieved April 12, 2010 from this page at foreign policy.com.

Adolf Hitler 1935: "National Socialist Germany wants peace because of its fundamental convictions....The principal effect of every war is to destroy the flower of the nation... Germany needs peace and desires peace!"

Adolf Hitler - speech at Wurzburg, 27 June 1937: “In this hour I would ask of the Lord God only this: that, as in the past, so in the years to come He would give His blessing to our work and our action, to our judgment and our resolution, that He will safeguard us from all false pride and from all cowardly servility, that He may grant us to find the straight path which His Providence has ordained for the German people, and that He may ever give us the courage to do the right, never to falter, never to yield before any violence, before any danger... I am convinced that men who are created by God should live in accordance with the will of the Almighty... If Providence had not guided us I could often never have found these dizzy paths... Thus it is that we National Socialists, too, have in the depths of our hearts our faith. We cannot do otherwise: no man can fashion world-history or the history of peoples unless upon his purpose and his powers there rests the blessings of this Providence.”

Neville Chamberlain, celebrating a peace agreement with Hitler on his return to England, 1938:
The Munich agreement that permitted Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland was signed in the early hours of 30 September 1938 (but dated 29 September). "The settlement of the Czechoslovakian 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 (waves paper to the crowd - receiving loud cheers and 'Hear Hears'). "My good friends, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time."

Winston Churchill denouncing the Agreement in the House of Commons: "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."

Tags: Ahmadinejad | Ban Ki Moon | Final Solution | Hitler | United Nations

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