Alumnus Joseph Duggan discusses Vaclav Havel
Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2011
The American Spectator just published an article entitled "Havel's 'Respect for Mystery' versus the Techno-Gnostics: He understood the need to save 'serious' thought from itself" by IWP Alumnus Joseph P. Duggan.
In September of 1988, Mr. Duggan, as an advisor to Ambassador Edward Rowny, helped present Václav Havel, then a persecuted "dissident" (but only a little more than a year from becoming President of the Republic), his first briefing on US defense policies and postures. This briefing occurred in a breakfast meeting arranged under conditions of great secrecy, at the home of the US Deputy Chief of Mission in Prague.
In addition to Havel, participants in the conversation included Jiri Dienstbier, Rita Klimova, Martin Palous, and Vaclav Maly, the latter now auxiliary bishop of Prague. A month later, Havel was jailed again by the Communist regime. He was jailed again in 1989 before becoming President of the Republic.
Please click here to read the article.
