A nation must stand up to its enemies. Long ago, when the Danes swept across the North Sea into what is now England, its rulers tried to pay off the Danes with gold. Historians call that the “Danegeld.” However, the bribes did not work. The Danes kept coming back for more and ultimately took all of what is now England.
More recently, in the late 1930s, the United Kingdom and France tried to appease the appetite of Adolph Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany. The two countries thought that appeasement would satisfy Hitler. Former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain and former Prime Minister Edouard Daladier of France were wrong. First, Hitler just wanted Austria. Then he said he would be satisfied with the Sudetenland, the German-speaking region of what was then Czechoslovakia. Only when Hitler demanded Poland did Britain and France stand up to the bully. Only…
