Eden Resigns: Britain's Rift Over Appeasement Deepens

Anthony Eden resigned as British Foreign Secretary on February 20, 1938, over fundamental disagreements with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasing Fascist Italy. Eden believed that negotiating directly with Mussolini without preconditions rewarded aggression and undermined the League of Nations. Chamberlain, who conducted back-channel diplomacy with Italian Ambassador Dino Grandi without consulting Eden, saw appeasement as the only realistic path to avoiding another European war. Eden's resignation was the first significant crack in the British government's united front on foreign policy and signaled to the world that senior figures in London believed appeasement was failing. Winston Churchill, then a backbench critic of Chamberlain, immediately recognized Eden as an ally. Six months later, the Munich Agreement validated Eden's warnings when Chamberlain traded Czechoslovak territory for a promise of 'peace in our time' that lasted barely a year.