Czechoslovakia

Madeleine Albright’s Prague Winter Reveals Family Secrets (EXCERPT)

| | Posted 04.30.2012

Read More: Madeleine Albright Religion, Madeleine Albright Secretary of State, Video, Prague Winter, Prague Winter Excerpt, Madeleine Albright Catholic, The Holocaust, Family Secrets, Madeleine Albright Jewish, Czechoslovakia, Václav Havel, Madeleine Albright, Fifty News

What does it feel like to be told your entire perception of your family and your childhood was wrong? Madeleine Albright, former U.S. secretary of sta...

Read Whole Story

Czechs Rally After Havel

Ben Barber | Posted 04.23.2012

Read More: Communism, Vaclav Havel, Dissidents, Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, Prague, World News
Ben Barber

Tens of thousands of Czechs rallied in the streets of Prague April 21 to protest budget cuts, higher taxes and corruption -- the largest protest since the 1989 Velvet Revolution swept out communism.

Read Post

Will Vaclav Havel's Legacy Last?

AP | By VANESSA GERA | Posted 12.22.2011

Read More: Communism, East Bloc, Iron Curtain, Vaclav Havel, Romania, Europe Democracy, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, World News

WARSAW, Poland -- When Czech playwright Vaclav Havel was thrown in prison for his anti-communist writings, life for people across the East Bloc was sh...

Read Whole Story

Remembering Vaclav Havel

Andrew Nagorski | Posted 02.20.2012

Read More: Communism, Remembrance, Eastern Europe, Vaclav Havel, Poland, Solidarity, Free Speech, Czechoslovakia, Velvet Revolution, Dictatorship, Soviet, Newsweek, Playwright, Czech Republic, World News
Andrew Nagorski

Looking back at my encounters with Havel, I'm struck by three dominant character traits: his moral courage, his ability to recognize and live with the contradictions of human behavior, and his sense of the absurd.

Read Post

Vaclav Havel's Death Mourned

AP | KAREL JANICEK | Posted 02.17.2012

Read More: Vaclav Havel Dead, Vaclav Havel Passed Away, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Vaclav Havel, Iveta-Radicova, Czechoslovakia, Velvet Revolution, Karel Schwarzenberg, World News

PRAGUE — Thousands of Czechs paid tribute to Vaclav Havel on Sunday, braving cold and snow at the spot where the leader of the peaceful anti-com...

Read Whole Story

Earning Our Stars and Stripes

Nikki Stone | Posted 09.03.2011

Read More: Nikki Stone, Olympian, Opportunity, Determination, Czechoslovakia, The Biggest Loser, Weight Loss Tips, Athlete, Statue of Liberty, Diet, Motivation, Cinematographer, Wellness, Communism, Freedom, When Turtles Fly, Dreams, Inspiration, Independence Day, Health, Weight Loss, Commitment, George Koblasa, Goals, Sports News
Nikki Stone

Sometimes we forget how lucky we are to be able to work toward our dreams. I know one good friend who has never taken that for granted.

Read Post

Astoria Characters: The Genial Beer Garden Host

Nancy Ruhling | Posted 07.24.2011

Read More: Astoria, Harley-Davidson, Hamptons, Newark, Motorcycle, Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden, Sissy Spacek, Czechoslovakia, Astoria Characters, Yugoslavia, Berlin Wall, Larry Spacek, Corona Extra, Beer Gardens Nyc, New York News
Nancy Ruhling

When Larry Spacek, a Czech immigrant, was asked to manage the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden, he jumped at the chance. "This is a payback to my heritage," he says.

Read Post

South Sudan Reminds Us What It Takes to Become a New Nation

Howard Steven Friedman | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Confederacy, India, Montenegro, Slovakia, Civil War, Palau, United Nations, Serbia, Democracy, China, Independence, Country, Cairo, Sudan, Nauru, Czechoslovakia, North Sudan, Tuvalu, South Sudan, Czech Republic, World News
Howard Steven Friedman

Recently created countries remind us that there are no special requirements in terms of physical size, population or economic strength in order to become an independent country.

Read Post

On The Imprisonment of Iranian Filmmakers: A Moral Option For Iran and Any Government Presuming to Silence Its Artists

Michael Vazquez | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Cinémathèques, Zhang Yimou, World Cinema, Beijing Olympics, The Circle, Czechoslovakia, The Shop on Main Street, The Color of Pomegranates, United States, Mohammad Rasoulof, Farideh Gheirat, Milos Sethlik, Soviet Union, China, Michael Vazquez, Sergei Paradjanov, Cannes Film Festival, Peter Sellars, Translators Wanted, Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Crimson Gold, Russia, To Live, Facets.org, White Balloon, Jan Kadar, Persia, Jafar Panahi, Offside, The Twilight, Egypt, Alexandria, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Hosni Mubarak, Yemen, Cairo, Algeria, Arts News
Michael Vazquez

I've asked film curator Milos Stehlik, of Chicago's Facets.org to write a guest essay in the earnest service of furnishing a dually historical and mor...

Read Post

China, the Nobel Prize and the Road to Freedom

Dan Siegel | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Charter 77, I.F. Stone, Vaclav Havel, Burma, Nobel Peace Prize, Charter 08, Aung San Suu Kyi, Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Poland, Eastern Europe, Chinese Government, Liu Xiaobo, Czechoslovakia, Chinese Censorship, China, Impact News
Dan Siegel

Americans and the global community must keep its pressure weighing on Chinese officials to free Liu Xiaobo.

Read Post

Czechs Celebrate 20-Year-Anniversary Of The Fall Of Communism

AP | KAREL JANICEK | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic Communism, Prague, Czechslovakia Communism, Czech Republic, Czech Communism, Triumph, World News

PRAGUE — Thousands marched through the Czech capital Tuesday in commemoration of a student protest 20 years ago that grew into the human tidal w...

Read Whole Story

Czech: Iraq Planned Rocket Attack On Radio Free Europe

AP | KAREL JANICEK | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Czechoslovakia, Radio Free Europe, Saddam Hussein, Iraq, Radio Free Europe Rocket Attack, Czech Republic, World News

PRAGUE — Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime planned to use an anti-tank rocket to attack the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in ...

Read Whole Story

Getting the Vietnam Analogy Right in Afghanistan

Leon T. Hadar | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Nazi Germany, President Obama, Lebanon, Iran, Hitler, China, History, Muslim, Saudi Arabia, Nato, Vietnam War, John Kennedy, Chechnya, Munich, Analogies, Czechoslovakia, Syria, Xinjiang, West Germany, South Vietnam, Hamas, Soviet Union, Hizbollah, Afghanistan War, Al Quaeda, Kashmir, Shiites, Iraq War, Communism, North VIetnam, Taliban, India, Lyndon Johnson, Cuba, Ospolitik, Detente, World News
Leon T. Hadar

The ghosts of the Vietnam War seem to be hanging around the White House Situation Room as President Obama and his national security aides debate a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan.

Read Post

Slovak Miscue Lands Stefan Gonda In Irish Jail As Terrorist

AP | SHAWN POGATCHNIK | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Slovakia, Suicide Bombers, War on Terror, Terrorism, Suicide Bomber, Airports, Airplanes, Ireland, Airport Security, Czechoslovakia, Bombing, Stefan Gonda, World News

DUBLIN — A 49-year-old electrician emerged Wednesday as an unlikely symbol of what can go wrong in the war on terror after authorities in Slovak...

Read Whole Story

Astoria Characters: The Grandson of Mom-and-Pops

Nancy Ruhling | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Bartunek Hardware, Astoria, Chevy, Steinway Street, New York Post, Czechoslovakia, Gary Bartunek, New York News, World War II, New York Daily News, New York News
Nancy Ruhling

Gary got his counter spot at Bartunek Hardware from his father, Edward, who was born the same year as the store and who waited on customers until earlier this year when he died at age 84.

Read Post

Lessons from the Velvet Revolution

Stephen Zunes | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Communism, Ronald Reagan, Freedom, Nonviolent Action, Czechoslovakia, Democracy, Velvet Revolution, Fall of Berlin Wall, Haiti Earthquake, World News
Stephen Zunes

These movements were largely led by democratic socialists who mobilized workers, church people, intellectuals, and others to face down the tanks with their bare hands.

Read Post

Radomir Luza Dead: Author And Professor Wrote About WWII Horrors

Philadelphia Daily News | John F. Morrison | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Communism, Nazis, The Hitler Kiss, Czech Author, Czechoslovakia, Author Dead, Authors, Radomir Luza, Wwii, Books, Radomir v. Luza, Czech Republic, Books News

From bitter years of fighting the Germans, hiding underground and seeing comrades hunted and killed by the Gestapo, including his own father, then bat...

Read Whole Story

When The Berlin Wall Fell: Commentary

GlobalPost | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Communism, Czech, Eastern Europe Communism, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Berlin Wall, Czech Republic, Berlin, World News

I first saw the Berlin Wall in 1971. It was then about 10 years old and was the ugliest human structure I'd ever seen: gray, brutal, pitiless, unyield...

Read Whole Story

Poles, Czechs: US Missile Defense Shift A Betrayal

AP | VANESSA GERA | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Russia US Relations, US Missile Policy, US Missiles, Obama US Missile, Obama, Iran Nuclear, U.S. Missile, Russia Nuclear, US Eastern Europe Relations, Nuclear Weapons, Poland, Czechoslovakia, US Russia Relations, Czech Republic, Policy Shift, Czechs, Poles, Polish, World News

WARSAW, Poland — Poles and Czechs voiced deep concern Friday at President Barack Obama's decision to scrap a Bush-era missile defense shield pla...

Read Whole Story

Memo to Americans Spying for Another Country or Considering It

Keith Thomson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: On the Ground 2008, Egypt, The Netherlands, Taiwan, Jordan, Hungary, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, The Philippines, Iraq, China, South Africa, The United Kingdom, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Al-Qaeda, Russia, Austria, Greece, Germany, Relationships, Ghana, Spying, Liberia, Japan, El Salvador, France, Ecuador, South Korea, Poland, Libya, Israel, Cuba, North Korea, Politics News
Keith Thomson

A recent Defense Department report cites cases of 173 Americans arrested between 1947 and 2007 for passing state secrets to al-Qaeda, China, Egypt, Cuba, Poland, Germany, Russia, North Korea, France, among others.

Read Post

Eleven Other Countries with Big Auto Industry Problems

Steve Parker | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Renault, Chrysler, France, Suv, Cars, Spain, Prague, Ford, London, Madrid, Liverpool, General Motors, Japanese Cars, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Brussels, Zaragoza, Asia, Belgium, Hungary, Sweden, Czech Republic, Berlin, Saabs, Renault Nissan, Member of Parliament, Gm, Volvo, British, Angela Merkel, Jeep, Japan, Europe, Opel, China, Antwerp, Business News
Steve Parker

Here's some of what's happening, mostly with GM, in Europe and Asia, two markets outside the U.S. hit hardest by the slowing automobile business.

Read Post

Rumors Of The Next Cold War

Judah Freed | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Europe, Pakistan, Czechoslovakia, Balance of World Power, Hitler, Czarist Empire, Germany, Washington Post, Natural Gas, Saakashvili, Turkey, Communist Revolution, Czarist Russia, Russia Georgia War, Medvedev, Machiavelli, Tajikistan, Fall of the Soviet Empire, India, Trans-Caucasus Pipeline, The Washington Post, Russian Empire, Free Markets, Nazi Germany, Caspian Sea, World History, Oil Pipeline, Market Reforms, Napoleon, Azeri Chirag Gunashli Oil Fields, Putin, Iran, Kgb, Nato, 1917, Financial TImes, Balance of Power, Ukraine, Missile Defense Shield, Russia, Collapse of the Soviet Empire, Caucasus Mountains, World Power, Kazakhstan, Mikhail Saakashvili, Yeltsin, Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, Afghanistan, Mediterranean Sea, South Ossetia, Kremlin, Uzbekistan, Mt. Elbrus, Black Sea, France, Czar, Moscow, Georgia, Oil, Soviet Empire, New York Times, Realpolitik, Alexander Yeltsin, China. 1917 Communist Revolution, Cease-Fire, Baku, Shevardnadze, Turkmenistan, Ceyhan, Kygyzstan, Azerbaijan, Sudetenland, Tbilisi, Machiavellian, Balkan, Home News
Judah Freed

No matter how subtly the conquest happens, Russian control of Georgia would amount to an historic shift in the balance of power -- especially as long as the world economy is fueled by oil.

Read Post

Obama Still Does Not Know His Place

Paul Jenkins | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Annapolis, Islam, Bill Clinton, Germany, Michelle Obama, John McCain, Hewlett-Packard, Pakistan, Czechoslovakia, George W. Bush, Campaign Finance, Cindy McCain, Oregon, Democratic Party, Barack Obama, Harvard, Foreign Affairs, Carly Fiorina, Republican Party, Senate, African-American Issues, John McCain Gaffe, Politics News
Paul Jenkins

What angers John McCain and bemuses many traditional observers is how unflappable Barack Obama remains in public, no matter how condescending the attacks.

Read Post

Friday Talking Points [40] -- Obama Shines, McCain Whines

Chris Weigant | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: New Orleans, Gaffe, Gop, Bill of Rights, First Amendment, Speech, Giants, Atlas, Pakistan, Berlin, Czechoslovakia, Free Speech, Whine, Canada, Democratic, Iraq, Campaign, National Convention, Minimum Wage, Redskins, Oil Spill, 2008, Midotw, Victory Column, Most Disappointing Democrat of the Week, 2008 Campaign, Most Impressive Democrat of the Week, Democratic National Convention, Mississippi, Risk, Dncc, Tiergarten, John McCain, Germany, Football, Whiny, Oil Rig, Democrat, 2008 Elections, Democratic National Convention Committee, 08, Photo-Op, Nfl, Democrats, 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Election, 08 Election, Senior Moment, Presidential, Elections, Desperation, Free Speech Zones, 08 Campaign, Mddotw, Talking Heads, Convention, 2008 Presidential Race, Afghanistan, Burning Down the House, Mississippi River, Democrat-Lite, Politics News
Chris Weigant

Be careful what you wish for, John. That seems to be the message of the week for Senator John McCain. He took some campaign consultant's idea a few w...

Read Post