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Chamberlain was naïve about Hitler and the possibility of working with him, and he's rightly condemned for that, but he wasn't opposed to rearmament. The country just didn't want more weaponry before Munich. It had to learn not to trust Hitler. Chamberlain had to learn that as well, but even before Munich he hadn't been in favor of leaving Britain defenseless.

Labour pretended afterwards that Chamberlain was more opposed to rearmament than they were, which wasn't true. Churchill's supporters likewise played up the differences between Churchill and Chamberlain to make Chamberlain represent military unpreparedness, which also wasn't true.

Ironically, things worked out for the country, because when war did come Britain did have newer and better planes than would have been available if the country had gone to war in 1938 or had started seriously rearming back in 1935 or 1936. Chamberlain didn't intend that, of course, but it turned out that Britain had good luck.

[jim_trent]

> “Chamberlain didn’t intend that, of course, but it turned out that Britain had good luck.”

I agree with this.