In 1938, in Munich, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made a deal with Adolph Hitler allowing Nazi Germany to annex Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. Hailed as a hero for his diplomacy at the time, Chamberlain is now widely reviled for his policy of "appeasement" to Nazi aggression. Yet one year later, Chamberlain led Britain into war against Germany in defense of Poland once it became clear that appeasement had failed. By contrast, the US did little to halt Hitler's initial expansion, and entered into the war only gradually, attempting, until attacked directly, to sway the outcome without going to war itself. Never again would the US remain so aloof for so long from such a momentous international affair. As such, the Second World War represents a turning point in American foreign affairs, and it is perhaps hard for us to understand why the US took so long to take effective action against the Axis Powers