The other day I bought for my wife's collection of journalism books Reporting World War II: American Journalism 1938-1946. This morning, I just happened to pick it up and read the first dispatch by William L. Shirer, "It's All Over."

The report reads like a blog entry, with personal asides, opinions and complaints ... it even has UPDATES, like bloggers sometimes do when appending more information to a post.

The lede:

It's all over. At twelve thirty this morning — thirty minutes after midnight — Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain and Daladier signed a pact turning over Sudetenland to Germany. The German occupation begins tomorrow, Saturday, October 1, and will be completed by October 10. Thus the two "democracies" even assent to letting Hitler get by with his Sportpalast boast that he would get Sudetenland by October 1. He gets everything he wanted, except that he has to wait a few days longer for all of it. His waiting ten short days saved the peace of Europe — a curious commentary on this sick, decadent continent.

One of the updates has to do with a joint communique released later by Chamberlain and Hitler. It was a mere afterthought, according to Shirer, designed to allow Chamberlain a chance to save face. It read, in part, "We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German naval accord as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war again."

Upon returning to England, of course, Chamberlain would make his infamous "peace in our time" address.

Apologists for Chamberlain have suggested that history's harsh judgment on his appeasement is 20-20, but here is a contemporary writer who held Chamberlain in nothing but contempt. Chamberlain's appeasement was a disaster from the moment the pact was signed, and some people recognized it immediately.

Also, there's this interesting note from Shirer that reminds me of CNN's coddling of Saddam in order to maintain special access:

Incidentally, I've been badly scooped this night. Max Jordan of NBC got on the air a full hour ahead of me with the text of the agreement — one of the worst beatings I've ever taken. Because of his company's special position in Germany, he was allowed exclusive use of Hitler's radio studio in the Führerhaus ...

I wonder if Max Jordan is related to Eason Jordan?