As Foreign Secretary in Neville Chamberlain's Cabinet in 1937, Eden didn't believe in appeasing the German and Italian dictatorships or the militaristic Japanese regime. Instead, he wanted to confront their aggression head on. Faced with growing Japanese assertiveness, including the launching of an undeclared war on China in July 1937, Eden appealed to the US for help. He believed sending an Anglo-American naval force to the Western Pacific would demonstrate that the democracies were not spineless, but were prepared to stand up for what they believed in. Was this a viable alternative to Chamberlain's appeasement policy, now notorious for its failure in the face of fascism?
Historian Malcolm Murfett tells the story, using a wide range of primary sources from the UK and US archives, of Eden's push to persuade Roosevelt's administration to be more assertive in the Pacific. He reveals the diplomatic dance both sides engaged in, each unsure of the other's reliability, of their own ability to commit, and tied up in their own internal struggles for policy dominance. We get a real insight into how two once-and-future allies managed each other's expectations, as well as the wider strategic parameters within which they were operating.
With eerie echoes of our own times, Murfett explores the challenges involved in both international diplomacy, and foreign and security policy. How standing up for principles and values can become compromised by the requirements of Realpolitik, and logistical constraints.
Review :
"A highly detailed, learned, diplomatic history of relations between the United Kingdom and the United States over the Far East in the era of interwar appeasement. It is a work of high scholarship, written with very close understanding of the course of events, the attitudes and actions of the principal figures, and the significance of the situation in the Far East and how the Americans and British saw it. Based on extensive primary source research, and written with pace and interest throughout, it is an impressive and urgent read which has echoes for contemporary events."
Dr James Ellison
Queen Mary University of London
"I thoroughly enjoyed Eden's Alternative to Appeasement. Although a well-researched scholarly piece of work, Malcolm Murfett has created in his inimitable style a fast-paced account of diplomatic developments in those crucial months in 1937 and 1938 before the outbreak of WW2. It reads more like a thriller, except that it is not a fictional account but a telling of the life-and-death decisions that impacted on millions of people when war finally broke out."
Suppiah Yogendran
Former Night Editor of The Straits Times
