Last Years
P. Munch's last years were not happy ones. As the occupation wore on, and especially after the liberation in 1945 his record as foreign minister came under severe attack from many sides. In late 1945 he had to subject to the indignity of prolonged interrogation by a Parliamentary Committee set up to investigate the circumstances surrounding the occupation. Up until his death in 1948 there were repeated suggestions that he should be put on trial for negligence (and even treason). However, when the parliamentary commission delivered its final report in 1953, Munch was largely exonerated.
This did not, though, stop the continued blaming of Munch for the situation Denmark had been in. His policies were largely disowned by the political elite (his own Radical party the only exception). 'Never again a 9 April' ('Aldrig mere en 9. April') became a mantra for Danish politicians, and gradually a new bipartisan consensus emerged between the Liberals, Conservatives and Social Democrats regarding Danish foreign and security policy, which would lead to membership of NATO in 1949.
Read more about this topic: Peter Rochegune Munch
Famous quotes containing the word years:
“In talking with scholars, I observe that they lost on ruder companions those years of boyhood which alone could give imaginative literature a religious and infinite quality in their esteem.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“In the years of President Ford
Decorum and calm were restored.
He did nothing hateful
For which we were grateful
But terribly, terribly bored.”
—Anonymous.