ABSTRACT
In the fall of 1938, Adam Ulam applied through his brother for admission to Brown University in Providence. Following Munich, Adolf Hitler immediately began preparing to grab which remained of Czechoslovakia and intoxicated by his previous victories began simultaneously to press Poland. As the war clouds darkened over Europe during the summer of 1939, people could not or would not face the true implications of the coming terrible storm. From the standpoint of decades later, it must seem utterly amazing that anyone, especially in Poland that summer, could have been unaware, even nonchalant, about the possibility of war. Conscious that the revelation of the German blackmail meant absolute bankruptcy of his policy, Polish Foreign Minister Beck withheld Hitler's demands from the public as well as from the West. While there were daily new threats and fresh demands from Hitler, Ulam and his brother were lounging with out friends in the cafes of Lwow and Warsaw.
