U.S. Cultural Diplomacy & Czech Political Miracle

American Embassy as a symbol of the free world in reflections of Vaclav Havel’s Czech friends and colleagues. In August 2020, the VHLF filmed several short interviews with Vaclav Havel’s colleagues, friends, and fellow dissidents.

Michael Zantovsky describes the crucial role of the Vaclav Havel Library; Martin Palous talks about Vaclav Havel’s legacy as a continuing task and challenge to share experience from the totalitarian regime with young generations around the world. Helena Klimova, signatory of Charter 77, and wife of Czech writer Ivan Klima, speaks about the years of normalization alleviated by moral and spiritual support from U.S. writers and diplomats, Vaclav Havel’s humor, relations to his enemies, and his legacy of truth. The editor Jan Zelenka recollects the U.S. Embassy as a meeting place for dissidents and prominent American writers and emphasizes integrity and moral values as Vaclav Havel’s main inspiration for today.

Petr Oslzly, rector of the Janacek Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno and former advisor to President Havel, focuses on the cultural diplomacy represented by Ambassador William Luers and Wendy Luers that encouraged cultural dissent and gave cultural opposition the strength to fight non-violently against totalitarianism. The visual artist Frantisek Skala speaks about the Jindrich Chalupecky Award founded in 1990 by Vaclav Havel, Jiri Kolar, Theodor Pistek, and Wendy Luers to assist young artists to join the international scene.

Watch here: U.S. Cultural Diplomacy & Czech Political Miracle