He still hoped that the British would see reason and that the confrontation with France could be delayed until 1943–4, by which time the German army would have completed its build-up. But if the Western powers were determined to oppose his first steps towards eastward expansion, Hitler would not shrink from war. From the spring of 1938 onwards, Hitler began seriously to contemplate the need for a major war in the West, as a prelude to his drive against the Soviet Union. As hard as it may be to credit, given the subsequent fate of Czechoslovakia, this was the essential lesson that was learned
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