Donald Rumsfeld recently compared critics of the Iraq war with the appeasers of Hitler’s Germany (original story apparently now taken down).
Terrible thing, appeasement, but is it better or worse than doing business with Nazis?
While Chamberlain waved his bits of paper at everyone in 1938, and even after the Nazis had occupied most of Europe and Britain was standing alone, even after the declaration of war in December 1941, American companies were doing business with Nazi Germany. Indeed, one of the US entrepreneurs making money in Naziland was the grandfather of George Bush, Rumsfeld’s boss.
But it’s OK. Grandad wasn’t actually appeasing anyone.