The Soviet Union, now a member of the League of Nations, suggested a League conference to prepare a deterrence against further aggression by Hitler. Great Britain rejected the idea. There was in Britain's government distrust and dislike for the Soviet regime, and Britain's prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, announced that he would not agree to any mutual pledge against aggression with the Soviet Union and that he would not make any commitment to the Soviet Union's allies: Czechoslovakia or France. But he announced that British armament must be accelerated.
For the Germans, the spotlight in international affairs shifted to Czechoslovakia – a country created by the treaty signed at Versailles and consisting of Czechs, Slovaks, Magyars, Ruthenians, Poles and Germans. Barely half the population was Czech. About one-quarter were Germans, and Germans were a majority in that part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland, which bordered Germany. The Sudetenland was highly industrialized, and the Sudeten Germans resented living under Czech officials and police. The Sudeten Germans were excited over Austria having been absorbed into a greater Germany. They demanded political equality and autonomy. The Czechoslovakian government in Prague rejected their demands. Hitler made a show of wanting to rescue the Sudeten Germans, and now that he was in control of Austria he had Czechoslovakia surrounded on three sides.
On May 30, 1938, writes historian, David Reynolds, Hitler told his generals: "It is my unalterable decision to smash Czechoslovakia by military action in the near future." Hitler told his generals that military action was to be implemented by October 1 "at the latest." In Germany, many people still remembered the ugliness and hardship of World War I, and the public responded nervously to the prospect of Hitler taking their nation to war over the Sudetenland. Some of Hitler's generals also were opposed to war over the Sudetenland. The commander-in-chief of the German armies, General Ludwig Beck, viewed the German problem with Czechoslovakia intolerable, but on August 18, 1938, he submitted in resignation in protest over Hitler's plan to go to war as a solution. On September 1 General Franz Halder succeeded him. Halder was also opposed to going to war, as were Hermann Goering (Göring) and other German ministers and general staff. Beck and Halder thought Hitler imbalanced and they planned a coup against his rule.
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