As Trump tweets about North Korea, Neville Chamberlain has a warning for him

washington examiner

President Trump's post-North Korea summit rhetoric almost perfectly replicates in tone that of former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain following his September 1938 meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich.

As with Trump, Chamberlain had gone to a summit to meet a foreign adversary to forge a diplomatic compromise for peace. And as with Trump, Chamberlain left Munich with a piece of paper and a declaration of peace. But consider the deeper comparisons.

On Wednesday, Trump took to Twitter to declare that "there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea." Trump added,

That "sleep well tonight" line reminded me of Chamberlain's words nearly 80 years ago when he returned from Munich having accepted Hitler's annexation of areas of Czechoslovakia in return for the Nazi leader's promising against future expansionism. Addressing the crowds from Downing Street, Chamberlain declared triumphantly "I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Go home and get a nice quiet sleep."

Like Trump, who now claims that North Korea will enter a glorious new era of wealth, happiness and peace, Chamberlain was exuberant about the future. "The settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem which has now been achieved," Chamberlain noted, "is in my view only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace ... here is the paper which bears [Hitler's] name upon it as well as mine."