If you're going to accuse Barack Obama of appeasement, it's useful to know the origins of the expression, in Neville Chamberlain's abandonment of Czechoslovakia to Hitler at the Munich conference. Watch spluttering right-wing radio host Kevin James struggle to deal with an ambush question from Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball yesterday: "What did Neville Chamberlain do wrong in 1939?" Of course, if you're planning to demonstrate a Republican talking head's ignorance of history, as Matthews was attempting, it's also useful to remember that Munich was not in 1939, but in 1938.

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