My kind of guy.
Posted on 10/04/2021 1:31:20 PM PDT by ammodotcom
Our historical forgotten American articles are generally impressive figures, but there are very few one might accurately call “cool.” This is an exception in two ways. Václav Havel, the founder of the modern-day Czech Republic (also known as Czechia) is undoubtedly cool by any definition of the word. A political dissident under the Soviet-backed regime, he served hard time in Communist prisons rather than bend the knee to their authority. His moral courage acted as a beacon of hope for the entire resistance movement behind the Iron Curtain. As you've gathered by now, the second exception is that Havel is not American, but his fight against Communism earned himself an honorable mention in our "Forgotten Americans" section.
Havel was born in Prague in 1936, to a wealthy and prominent family in then Czechoslovakia, a nation newly independent from the Austro-Hungarian Empire made up of the future Czechia and Slovakia. His paternal line was comprised of real estate developers, while his mother was the daughter of a famous diplomat and journalist. As one might imagine, this did not make his life easy after the Czechoslovakian Communist coup d’etat of 1948.
Indeed, the new Communist regime dictated his life path largely on the basis of his class background. He took gymnasium classes while working as an apprentice chemical lab assistant. Due to political and social reasons, none of the post-secondary humanities programs would accept him as a student. He was accepted into a prestigious economics program, but dropped out after two years. He entered into compulsory military service in 1957, and left in 1959.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammo.com ...
Definitely a bad-ass, no doubt. Goes from Poet to world leader in the quest for freedom.
Also interesting is that the Czech Republic may be the first country in Eastern Europe to break loose of the EU...they’re getting quite fed there with Brussels trying to run their lives.
Mr. Havel was an incredible man.
Got well acquainted with my Czech counterpart in the international company where I still work back in 2017. You could tell he had a deep reverence for Vaclav Havel, much as Americans would for George Washington circa 1805.
I remember the scene. Evenings when thousands gathered before government buildings. Ordinary men, women and students in the throng. No speakers, no chants, no violence, just the sound of thousands of sets of keys being rhythmically shaken. They were saying "No! We are done with you!"......without uttering a word.....and they won!
” . . . No speakers, no chants, no violence, just the sound of thousands of sets of keys being rhythmically shaken. They were saying “No! We are done with you!”......without uttering a word.....and they won!”.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Good. Let us now begin to shake our keys at the fraudulently elected.
My brother, through his work, met Vaclav Havel shortly after he became the Czech president. Had dinner with him a couple of times and he said the same thing - he was a great man and the Czech people loved him.
Well, everything else we’ve done has worked so well, so.....
Biden would crap himself – which, in his defense, is something he’d have done anyway.
My kind of guy.
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