Title: A Fool's Hero
Length:1,240
Characters: France and his Prime Minister, Daladier. Mentions of England, America, Veneziano, Romano, Germany, Poland, Beneš (Czechoslovakian President), Mussolini, Chamberlain and Hitler.
Premise: France and Daladier travel back from the Munich Agreement and discuss the threat of an upcoming war with Germany.
Time Period: September 1938
Rating: T. Rated for one use of strong language and one use for mild language.

"Sir, I have failed you."

France said nothing and folded his hands neatly in his lap. The sentence that his Prime Minister had just said suggested some sort of response, but France couldn't think of a single thing to say in reply. Without realising, his hands grasped each other tighter and tighter until they were shaking from the , he let his hands go limp and one arm fell to his side.

"The circumstance certainly could be improved," France admitted, eventually. Then, after a long moment, "It wasn't your fault."

The Prime Minister of France, Daladier, snorted in a way that suggested that, with all due respect, sir, he did not agree. France shook his head.

"England is still stubbornly believing that Hitler will keep his word. Ah, the stupid man - he must have finally poisoned himself with his own cooking. He's been with America too much lately; the idealism must be rubbing off on him. That fascist," here he almost spat the word, "Mussolini has got some sort of fucked up agreement with Hitler, and Veneziano and Romano are too scared to do anything to stop him."

France gazed out of the plane window and looked at the land below. It all looked so small and so very far away from here. So strange to think that he was looking at himself, still scarred from the last war. How could there already be the threat of yet another? Whenever he saw Germany these days, the nation was starting to lose all the wide-eyed enthusiasm he had had for his Boss at the beginning. There was a hint of something a little like apprehension in his eyes. They had been glad for Germany, to start with, when Hitler came to power and started to wildly improve the economy - of course they had been, it meant that Germany could pay more of his reparations. But it was dangerous now. It was like a runaway train, and Germany was barely holding onto it any more. He was losing control. It was obvious to seemingly all but Arthur that Hitler had no intention to end his territorial gains at the Sudetenland. First the Sudetenland, then the rest of Czechoslovakia, then Feliks… And then what would happen?

France dreaded to think.

"Do - do you think he will?" France was jerked out of his thoughts and whipped his head round to face Daladier.

"What?"

"Stop at the Sudetenland."

"Do you?" Ah, the classic Gallic shrug that Arthur would never shut up about. If he had been here, he would have been mimicking it, complete with stupid accent and some reference to baguettes or berets. He really was spending too much time with Alfred recently. Idiots, the both of them. Just because he was known to go to one of Alfred's jazz clubs every once in a while didn't mean he get away with absolute stupidity when it came to the real world.

"Maybe?" Daladier tried to sound hopeful, but that sag in his posture and those averted eyes betrayed everything. France laid a hand on Daladier's shoulder, meaning for it to be comforting, but the man almost jerked away, only managing to stay still at the last second.

"If I am completely honest with you, then no. I don't think for one second that Hitler will stop at the Sudetenland. He will want more space for lebensraum. He will always want more room for lebensraum and we will keep letting him do whatever the hell he wants until we're all DEAD!" France's voice rose a shout, climbed over the noise of the aeroplane engine and abruptly stopped all other conversationalists on the plane's talks, until someone coughed politely and they continued again, the talking raising to a quiet buzz.

Daladier buried his head in his hands.

"What have I done?" He moaned.

"Not you: we. We have all caused this; not only you and I, but the whole of Europe. It's not anyone's fault in particular for causing this situation, but we have all contributed. Don't try and work out whose fault it is. God knows historians will do it to tears within less than a decade."

"I couldn't do anything by myself," Daladier said. He almost seemed to be seeking comfort now. France shook his head.

"Nobody can do anything by themselves. Without support, we are nothing."

"I thought we had saved you from this - we, we signed treaties with Czechoslovakia oh God we were going to be their allies if Germany attacked and now look what's happened we've given Hitler what he wanted and Beneš wasn't even at Munich and -"

"Calm down." France let Daladier take huge racking sobs of air as he struggled to catch up with his breathing. "You couldn't do anything; there are too many people and countries who wish to close their eyes in case they see the truth. We will return home now and prepare for war in case Hitler does invade Poland. We will gather arms and troops until then. There have been wars before. There will be wars again. We will be prepared." Daladier nodded miserably and sunk down in his chair.

"I don't know what's going to happen," he said.

"Neither do I. However," France said, looking down at the expensive suit Daladier was wearing, "you may want to find yourself a thick coat to wear when you get off the plane." A bewildered look from Daladier, quickly followed by a questioning one. "That suit is awfully nice," France explained. "You wouldn't want it to get stained by the eggs."

A while later, a thick coat had been found and the plane had landed. Daladier had always hated taking off and landing when flying and had been a pale terrified mess. There were crowds outside waiting for them at the airport, shouting something, but it was impossible to hear quite what. Before exiting the plane, Daladier crossed his fingers nervously and then shoved both hands inside his coat pocket.

He began to stride down the steps, France following a few steps behind him, and at once they were overwhelmed by the noise of the crowd. France grimaced and tried not to make it too obvious that he was walking a little further behind Daladier, to limit the probability of being hit by an off course egg or tomato. Only a few seconds later, he realised that nothing was being thrown at either of them, and the crowd was not shouting hostile threats as he expected, but cheering instead, yelling up words of encouragement and praising Daladier for keeping the peace in Europe. Suddenly, France understood. Better to not have war now, they thought. Better to put as much time as possible between the last war and the next, when the next was sure to be as much of a blood bath as the first. They would be willing to hide behind a pretence of peace now, no matter how fragile, before they had to be plunged into war.

"Vive Daladier!" They cheered. "Vive la Paix! Vive la France!"

Daladier turned behind to look at France, perplexed.

"What is happening?" He mouthed. France smiled sadly and beckoned him closer, whispering into his ear,

"You are, to them, the one who has saved the peace of France. You are a hero." Daladier frowned and gave a bitter laugh, and then looked round at the crowd in wonderment.

"Ah, the fools!" he said, despairingly. "If they knew!"

I hoped you enjoyed this story. Although I did my best regarding research, there may be one or two historical inaccuracies, especially when it comes to the characterisation of Daladier. If you are a product of the English School System and did GCSE History, it's likely that you have a bit of a head start on some people, but I've included a bit of background history and explanation for terms which I think are going to be the most likely ones that need explaining.

In September 1938, a series of three meetings took place discussing an area of land in Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland. Hitler, having already taken back much of the land that was taken from him in the Treaty of Versailles and had further expanded to Austria, wanted to take control of this last German speaking population of the Sudetenland - there were three million German speakers living there. The Appeasement of Hitler had been a common feature of the 1930s, and this was no different; at the third meeting, it was decided that Hitler could have all of the Sudetenland, without the citizens voting on it, in return for Hitler publicly stating that this would be his last territorial claim in Europe - something he would soon go against. This was known as The Munich Agreement, and was signed by Britain, France, Italy and Germany - Chamberlain, Daladier, Mussolini and Hitler, respectively. Notably, the Czechoslovakian Prime Minister, Beneš, was absent from these meetings.

It was particularly relevant to France, as France had made a treaty with Czechoslovakia about protecting Czechoslovakia were they to be invaded to Hitler. The signing of this agreement directly went against this treaty between France and Czechoslovakia.

Lebensraum - literally, living room - was something that Hitler often used as part of his reasoning for invasion of new territories. It was so that the expanding German population would be able to have more space to live and work in.

When Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, returned to England, he said that the Munich Agreement was a success and delivered a speech to crowds in London, declaring, "I have returned from Germany with peace for our time." Daladier, however, was far less optimistic and already thought that Hitler would go against his word. He was surprised to see the French people hail him with joy, crying "Vive Daladier! Vive la Paix! Vive la France!" He had, in fact, put on a thick coat and turned up the collar in order to avoid being hit with eggs or tomatoes. Reportedly, he turned to an aide and commented: "Ah, les cons! S'ils savaient!" (Ah, the fools! If they knew!")

In France, a Prime Minister is not the same as it is in England - the Prime Minister is appointed by the President of the French Republic. For example, at the moment, the President of the French Republic is François Hollande, and the Prime Minister is Jean-Marc Ayrault.

Reparations refers to the sum of money German was required to pay following World War One, after the Treaty of Versailles. Article 231 of the treaty, known as 'the war-guilt clause', said that Germany was responsible for all 'loss and damage' suffered by the Allies during the war and must pay back reparations.

England and France had a treaty with Poland that said that if Hitler were to invade Poland, they would go to war with Hitler. As they had a long history of appeasing Hitler, he didn't believe that they would actually do anything, and so he invaded Poland, having made the Nazi-Soviet Pact with the USSR that they wouldn't attack each other and would split Poland between them in order to ensure that he would have to split his armies between the USSR on one side and Britain and France on the other.

SOURCES:

video/deladier-leaves-for-munich-conference-aka-daladie/query/Edouard

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wiki/%C3%89douard_Daladier

wiki/Munich_Agreement#Quotations_from_key_participants

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wiki/Prime_Minister_of_France

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