Peace for our time

The phrase "peace for our time" was spoken on 30 September 1938 by British prime minister Neville Chamberlain in his speech concerning the Munich Agreement. [cite web | url = http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/neville-chamberlain | title = Neville Chamberlain | publisher = UK government | accessdate = 2008-09-23] Often misquoted as "peace in our time", it is primarily remembered for its ironic value. The Munich Agreement gave the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler in an attempt to satisfy his desire for Lebensraum or "living space" for Germany. The German occupation of the Sudetenland began on the next day, 1 October.

One year after the agreement, following continued aggression from Germany and its invasion of Poland, Europe was plunged into World War II.

Cultural references

*"Peace In Our Time (play)" is also the title of a 1947 stage play by Noel Coward.Set in an alternative 1940, the Battle of Britain has been lost, the Germans have supremacy in the air and the British Isles are under Nazi occupation. Inspired to write this play in 1946 after seeing the effects of the occupation of France, the famously patriotic Coward wrote: "I began to suspect the physical effect of four years' intermittent bombing is far less damaging to the intrinsic character of a nation than the spiritual effect of four years of enemy occupation."
*"Peace In Our Time" is a 1984 song by Elvis Costello which is critical of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The lyric refers to Neville Chamberlain, imperialism, totalitarianism and social control, commenting on their relation to then current world politics and social conditions in Europe and the United States.
*"Peace in Our Time" is also the title of Big Country's fourth studio album.
*"Monty Python's Flying Circus" made a reference to Peace for our time in their sketch "The Funniest Joke in the World", where the treaty is referred to as "Britain's great pre-war joke".
*Freeciv peace treaties are concluded with the quote "Yes, peace in our time."
*The line was parodied in a controversial "Daily Mirror" front page during Euro 96 before England's semi-final game against Germany, as "Pearce in our time".
* In the film , Klingon general Chang shouts "no peace in our time!" when discussing the upcoming peace between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire.
* The satirical paper "The Onion"'s 1999 book "Our Dumb Century" features a phony 1938 issue headlining Chamberlain's promise of "London Laid Waste In Our Time."
* In the "Babylon 5" episode "The Fall of Night", an Earth Alliance diplomat named Frederick Lantz comes to the station to negotiate a non-aggression pact with the increasingly expansionist Centauri Republic. When confronted by Captain Sheridan, he says, "We will, at last, have peace in our time."
* The Marvel Comics 2006 crossover event, " Planet Hulk ", had a 4-part history, releases 88 through 91, called "Peace in our Time".
*Fred Thompson's Republican Party National Convention Speech used the above misquotation on September 2, 2008.

ee also

*Land for peace

References

External links

* [http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/workbook/ralprs36.htm Peace in our Time. Speech given in Defense of the Munich Agreement, 1938] - online text of the speech.

* [http://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/27809884.html Fred Thompson's RNC Speech, September 2, 2008] -- Online text and video of the speech. Specific citation "peace in our time" is in the third from the final paragraph.