[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 26, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S4403]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               DIPLOMACY

  Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, we have heard on this floor and in the 
popular media that the main reason we are at war is because ``diplomacy 
has failed,'' and there are those who have attacked the President for 
his ``failure'' in diplomacy. We also hear that polls are running 
heavily against the war.
  My mind goes back to a somewhat similar situation in Great Britain 
when Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich and said, ``We have 
established peace in our time.'' He referred to the Czechs, whose 
country he gave to Adolf Hitler in this fashion:

       Why should we consider people who live in a land far away 
     and with whom we have little or nothing to do?

  Winston Churchill opposed the treaty that Neville Chamberlain brought 
home from Munich. He offered stirring rhetoric, saying, ``We have 
suffered a defeat of the first magnitude.'' That stirred my soul as a 
young schoolchild reading about it. What I didn't realize until I 
became an adult is that Winston Churchill got only three votes, as 
Parliament overwhelmingly endorsed Chamberlain. And the popular polls, 
as I say, made Chamberlain the most popular politician in Great 
Britain, and maybe in all of Europe. Of course, within 2 years, we 
found that Winston Churchill was right and Chamberlain went off to 
historical disgrace.
  The Munich example is not exactly analogous to this situation. No 
historical situation is exactly analogous to a current circumstance, 
but it is one we should keep in mind as we hear rhetoric saying that 
diplomacy has failed. Diplomacy in Munich is what failed and the war 
followed.
  The Senator from North Carolina has a resolution she wishes to offer 
with respect to the current British Prime Minister. I yield to her the 
remainder of my time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from North Carolina.
  Mrs. DOLE. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mrs. DOLE pertaining to the introduction of S. 709 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Bills and Joint 
Resolutions.'')
  Mrs. DOLE. I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator's time has expired. The 
Senator from North Dakota.

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