President Bush Welcomes Vaclav Havel to the White House
Annotation
In February 1990, the newly-elected president of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel, became the first Czechoslovakian leader to visit Washington and meet with a US president. A former dissident and playwright, Havel was “an enigmatic figure” in his own country, according to National Security Council staff member Robert L. Hutchings, and his meeting with President George H. W. Bush was helpful in building up his credibility as a serious leader. The visit also served to antagonize Slovaks, as the Czechoslovakia delegation numbering more than two hundred officials included only eight Slovak members. Havel’s meetings with Bush “cemented the personal chemistry” between the two, according to Hutchings, and although the two began the meetings with disparate notions of the proper method to institutionalize a post-Cold War unified Europe—Bush insisted on NATO as the coordinator, while Havel favored the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), whose 35 member nations represented NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and neutral countries—a State Department official reported to the press that during the meeting Havel agreed that US troops and NATO forces would play a stabilizing role in the immediate future.
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Remarks Following Discussions With President Vaclav Havel of Czechoslovakia
February 20, 1990
President Bush. Well, welcome to everybody. And it's been my great pleasure to
welcome to the White House a man of tremendous moral courage, one of the heroes of
the Revolution of '89, the President of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel.
Mr. President, your life has been one of miraculous transformations from the world of
drama to the world of dissent, from the life of the artist to the life of the activist, and of
course in the space of just 1 short year, the most miraculous journey of all, from prison to
the Presidency. And of course it's possible to measure profound change in more personal
terms. For years, as a dissident subject to arrest and imprisonment at any time, you could
never go out without your toothbrush in your pocket. But now, as President, you can
never go out without one of these neckties. [Laughter]
And many years ago you made a choice. You chose to live your life in keeping with your
conscience not for others but for yourself. But others drew strength from the life you led,
and your life was a tribute to the difference one man can make, powerful proof of the
democratic idea. On the one side stood the state with its prisons and secret police; and on
the other, Vaclav Havel, one man alone but with the strength of his convictions, always
free with the freedom that comes from living in truth. First one man, and now millions.
President Havel never stopped believing in what he called this unbelievable thought: that
any one of us can shake the Earth. Shake the Earth, Mr. President, and part the Iron
Curtain. Shake the Earth and knock down the Berlin Wall. Shake the Earth and set in
motion a process of change from Budapest to Bucharest, from Warsaw to Wenceslas
Square.
And that was the Revolution of '89, and our task now in the 1990's is to move forward
from revolution to renaissance, towards a new Europe in which each nation and every
culture can flourish and breathe free -- a Europe whole and free.
President Havel, Czechoslovakia has turned to you to lead the way, and is it not fitting for
a nation that each day writes a new page in its history to have elected a playwright as its
President?
And I am pleased that we've had this opportunity to meet, to speak together about the
changes that are taking place from Prague to Moscow, and about Czechoslovakia's place
in the heartland of the new Europe now emerging. We know there is no room for
illusions. Difficult work lies ahead. The damage of four decades of fear and repression
cannot be repaired in a day. But we know something more: We know that the people of
Czechoslovakia have waited long enough, and they know it's time to move forward to
freedom.
Czechoslovakia and Europe are at the threshold of a new era. And I know I can speak for
all Western leaders when I say that the Atlantic alliance will continue to play a vital role
in assuring stability and security in Europe at this great and historic moment. And
America will continue to play its part, including a strong military presence for our
security and for Europe's.
Mr. President, you've not asked for American economic aid, and you made it clear that
democratic Czechoslovakia wants the opportunity to do business on an equal footing.
And in that regard, I am pleased to announce that I signed today letters notifying our
Congress that I am waiving the Jackson-Vanik amendment for Czechoslovakia. Today
our trade representatives began negotiating a trade agreement. Pending passage by your
Parliament of new liberal emigration legislation, these measures will permit us to extend
the most-favored-nation status to Czechoslovakia without the requirement of an annual
waiver, granting your country the most liberal access to the American market possible
under United States law.
Mr. President, you've also explained the enormous tasks that you face in rebuilding a
democracy on the ruins of the one-party state that you inherited. And you've identified
several areas where help is needed, and we are ready to respond. Let me just mention two
specifics. First, in response to your request, I am asking Peace Corps Director Paul
Coverdell to take the initial steps to bring the Peace Corps to Czechoslovakia by this fall.
And second, I am delighted that we will soon reopen our consulate in Bratislava, as well
as new cultural centers there and in Prague.
Mr. President, I assure you the United States will be part of your nation's democratic
rebirth. Everything I've seen this past year tells me that Czechoslovakia can meet the
challenges ahead. And as you've said in your first address as President on New Year's
Day, so many times we've heard politics defined as the art of the possible; and this year
has taught us something new, something more: It taught us, as you put it, that politics can
be the art of the impossible.
Mr. President, before you leave us today, I would like to present you with a lithograph of
your illustrious predecessor, Czechoslovakia's first President and author of your nation's
Declaration of Independence, Thomas Masaryk. This portrait was done in Prague Castle
and kept by President Masaryk until his death, when he gave it to his successor at Charles
University's department of philosophy, President Jan Kozak.
In 1939, at the time of the Nazi invasion, Professor Kozak had 2 hours to pack his
belongings and to flee Czechoslovakia. Among the items he took with him, this portrait
of his friend. Professor Kozak settled in Ohio at Oberlin College, and so did this portrait
until today. And now, with freedom returning to Czechoslovakia, so, too, should this
portrait of President Masaryk, Czechoslovakia's first President and champion of freedom.
Once again, Mr. President, it has been my privilege to welcome you to Washington and
to the White House. And God bless you, and may God bless the people of
Czechoslovakia. We are pleased to have you here.
President Havel. Mr. President, I am very moved by your speech. I thank you very much
for this drawing. I promise you it will be very soon back in our castle.
We had with Mr. Bush very important negotiations. We had very warm, very open, very
friendly discussions. I am very glad that I had the opportunity to be here to explain what
happened in Czechoslovakia, to explain our viewpoint, our policy. And thank you very
much that we could be here. Thank you for the invitation. And of course I invite you to us
in Prague, in Czechoslovakia. And you will see this nice drawing in my office on Prague
Castle.
President Bush. Thank you, sir. Godspeed.
Note: President Bush spoke at 1:35 p.m. at the South Portico of the White House. Prior to
their remarks, the two Presidents met privately in the Oval Office and with U.S. and
Czechoslovak officials in the Cabinet Room, and then attended a luncheon in the Old
Family Dining Room.
Credits
George H. W. Bush, "Remarks Following Discussions With President Vaclav Havel of Czechoslovakia," speech, The White House, Washington, D.C., February 20, 1990, Bush Presidential Library, Documents and Papers, Bush Library (accessed May 14, 2008).