Radio War Nerd EP #582 — Deconstructing "Munich 1938" part 3: 1939 - present, feat. Annibale
Guest: Annibale
Recorded: February 13, 2026
In part 3 of Annibale's series recovering the real history of the infamous Munich 1938 conference, we sum up the lessons of what actually happened 1919-1939, to apply some models and lessons to conflicts of our times, from Ukraine to the South China Sea.
Further listening:
RWN #578 — Deconstructing "Munich 1938" Pt. 2: 1933-39
RWN EP #576 - Deconstructing "Munich 1938" Pt. 1: 1919-1933
Total time: 1:08:50
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
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Comments (12)
Annibale is an international treasure. Always telling us so much of what most of us didn't understand correctly. Thank you! To people that complain, "I don't understand his accent" -- grow up. Most of the world doesn't speak Californian or New York vocal fry. The content is well worth your training your ears. A valuable life skill anyway.
Radio war nerd presents: Annibale presents: Munich 1938: everything you thought you knew is wrong: part 3
This series rocked. Any chance of something similar — the background, the myth, the truth, the legacy — for Yalta?
We'll consider this option!
This is great stuff, but did I miss the climactic final episode of the Barbarossa series in which the Germans go for Moscow and get chopped at the gates? Last thing I remember was Kiev.
We'll restart the Barbarossa series soon
I have two points. First, when discussing Taiwan, it is essential to consider TSMC, the only reason the US cares about Taiwan at all. TSMC manufactures the great majority of the world's cutting edge ICs. The only US competitor, Intel, is at least two process nodes behind TSMC and will almost certainly never catch up. The recent investment by Nvidia in Intel had little to do with Intel producing ICs for Nvidia, but was rather a way to insulate TSMC from Intel's process patents. Strategically, the US needs TSMC so it can build its expensive, gold-plated weapons. Perhaps more importantly, it does not want to see TSMC's capabilities go to China. How this resolves were a war to brew up, I have no idea. Perhaps the TSMC fabs are all mined and ready to blow. But as the loss of TSMC will crater the AI boom, the US cannot simply walk away from Taiwan. Second, even if everything Annibale said about Munich is correct and I am not the scholar of history that he is so I will not even try to dispute his analysis, it does not change the fact that the West, in the persons of France and Britain, sold out the Czechs without even a "by your leave." If France and Britain had said to Germany, "We cannot bargain away Czech territory without Czech presence and participation, " at least the Czechs could have made up their own mind whether to fight at this point, rather than preemptively being forced to give up its most defensible territory, its most important industries, and any possibility of independence in the face of Nazi Germany. I do not believe the Czechs could have defeated Germany at that time, but the war would have been bloody and destroyed the very industry that Germany wanted so badly. That would have been a better outcome than what transpired. Jonathan Penn
LOL. The British and French letting people self-determine.
I spent so much of my adult life saying "this isn't Munich" to all the ambient imperialism in the US that it only occurred to me five or six years ago to start questioning if Munich were even Munich. Ever since then I've been hoping Annibale would address the topic, and am thoroughly happy with the answer.
You guys have really been putting out the episodes in these eventful days of doom and gloom. Thank you for your work and commentary.
Thank to you!
How bout Munich 2026? The name will have much different connotations for the next century compared to the previous… love the show! Long live Annibale!