ABSTRACT
Appeasement has been practiced since time immemorial in relations among nations and states, principally by small and weak countries against their powerful neighbors. The policy of Prussia vis-à-vis Napoleon up to 1806 was a blatant case of appeasement; so too was Sweden's policy vis-à-vis Nazi Germany in the early years of World War II. In all such cases it is legitimate to ask whether some other policy would have been advisable or indeed possible. Some policies of appeasement are rooted in dire necessity, others in shortsightedness, confusion, or even cowardice. Underlying the appeasement of the 1930s was a trauma, that of World War I, the many hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed at Paschendaele and the Somme. Underlying the appeasement of the 1970s is the trauma of Vietnam. Appeasement is a powerfully attractive position for many sectors of the population in a democratic society.
