The agreement between Secretary of State Kerry and the Russian Federation makes the Obama administration a partner of not only President Putin but also of President Al-Assad of Syria. The idea is that the Syrian will destroy his chemical weapons, which the Kremlin helped him to acquire, and accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention. In return — according to the Washington Post — the Obama administration may have agreed not only to lay off a military attack but to forbear from bringing Mr. Al-Assad before the World Court.

This is a time to review what happened in 1938 at Munich. It was the most famous appeasement in modern history. The crisis started coming to a head in February 1938, as the Nazis moved toward the annexation of Austria and Hitler vowed to protect German minorities outside of the Reich. The Czechoslovak premier, Milan Hodza, declared on March 4 that his country would defend itself. On the 12th, the Anschluss began. By the 13th, Germany’s union with Austria was announced, and Hitler arrived to take possession. Germany offered assurances to Prague, and the French and Soviets vowed to honor their treaty obligation to defend Czechoslovakia.

The Sudeten Germans, agitating for union with the Nazi state, issued demands in April for equal status between Germans and Czechoslovaks and a revision of Czechoslovak foreign policy. Prague rejected the demands. Britain and France urged concessions. The Czechoslovak government mobilized 400,000 men amid rumors of a German military buildup. Britain and France supported the Czechoslovak government. Germany threw half a million men into building up its fortifications.

In July, Britain sent Lord Runciman to investigate the situation in Sudetenland, and he supported the German claims. Britain assigned Runciman to mediate, while Germany called up 750,000 men for military maneuvers. Britain mobilized the Royal Navy, and Prime Minister Chamberlain announced Britain would stand firm. In early September, France called up a million men. On the 12th, Hitler gave a speech at Nuremberg demanding self-determination for the Sudeten Germans. Czechoslovakia declared martial law.

This is when Chamberlain, with the backing of the French, requested a personal meeting with Hitler. At the meeting, Hitler demanded the annexation of Czechoslovakia’s German lands on the basis of “self determination.” He vowed he’d go to war. Chamberlain went back to London with Lord Runciman for a meeting with the French. The conference took place on the 18th. Daladier was present, and the parley urged Prague to accept the German demands in return for a guaranty by Britain and France.

The Czechoslovak government rejected the scheme. It sought arbitration, but France and Britain refused. This is the point at which Chamberlain went to Godesberg to meet with Hitler, only to be hit with yet new demands for the seizure of the Sudetenland. The Czechoslovak government mobilized for war. This was now the biggest crisis since the First World War.

Chamberlain asked for yet another conference with Hitler. President Franklin Roosevelt himself urged Hitler to parley. On September 27, Chamberlain made his infamous broadcast saying: “How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing.” By the 29th, he was in Munich with Hitler, Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop, Mussolini, and Daladier. The Czechoslovak government was absent. Hitler’s demands were met.

Cheers of joy greeted the returning premiers. Daladier reacted to what the New York Times characterized as the “tumultuous” welcome he received by turning to an aide and saying, “The imbeciles — if they only knew what they were acclaiming!” The leading appeasement organ, the London Times, wrote: “No conqueror returning from a victory on the battlefield has come home adorned with nobler laurels than Mr. Chamberlain from Munich.”

It fell to Churchill to speak in the Commons the ghastly truth: “I will begin by saying what everybody would like to ignore or forget but which must nevertheless be stated, namely, that we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat . . . the German dictator, instead of snatching the victuals from the table, has been content to have them served to him course by course.”

* * *

In other words, the ministers of Democracy had become — through their infernal yakking — partners in the crime. The appeasement played well politically. As late as May 1939, one poll discovered that 58.26% of those queried reckoned that the risk of war had decreased since Munich. Chamberlain’s approval soared in the months after Munich. In October 1938, 59% of Americans surveyed reckoned Britain and France had done “the best thing in giving in to Germany instead of going to war.” It would be inapt to liken President Putin to Hitler or President Obama or Secretary Kerry to Chamberlain. But it would not be inapt to suggest that in respect of today’s crisis there is much to be learned from 1938, when we discovered that the diplomacy was the appeasement.