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Most of the works on the crises of the 1930s and especially the
Munich Agreement in 1938 were written when it was virtually
impossible to gain access to the relevant archive collections on
both sides of the Iron Curtain. This text studies the
Czechoslovak-German crisis and its impact from previously neglected
perspectives and celebrates the post-Cold War openness by bringing
in new evidence from hitherto inaccessible archives.
Most of the works on the crises of the 1930s and especially the
Munich Agreement in 1938 were written when it was virtually
impossible to gain access to the relevant archive collections on
both sides of the Iron Curtain. This text studies the
Czechoslovak-German crisis and its impact from previously neglected
perspectives and celebrates the post-Cold War openness by bringing
in new evidence from hitherto inaccessible archives.
In 1945, both the U.S. State Department and U.S. Intelligence saw
Czechoslovakia as the master key to the balance of power in Europe
and as a chessboard for the power-game between East and West.
Washington believed that the political scene in Prague was the best
available indicator of whether the United States would be able to
coexist with Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union. In this book, Igor Lukes
illuminates the end of World War II and the early stages of the
Cold War in Prague, showing why the United States failed to prevent
Czechoslovakia from being absorbed into the Soviet bloc. He draws
on documents from archives in the United States and the Czech
Republic, on the testimonies of high ranking officers who served in
the U.S. Embassy from 1945 to 1948, and on unpublished manuscripts,
diaries, and memoirs. Exploiting this wealth of evidence, Lukes
paints a critical portrait of Ambassador Laurence Steinhardt. He
shows that Steinhardt's groundless optimism caused Washington to
ignore clear signs that democracy in Czechoslovakia was in trouble.
Although U.S. Intelligence officials who served in Prague were
committed to the mission of gathering information and protecting
democracy, they were defeated by the Czech and Soviet clandestine
services that proved to be more shrewd, innovative, and eager to
win. Indeed, Lukes reveals that a key American officer may have
been turned by the Russians. For all these reasons, when the
Communists moved to impose their dictatorship, the U.S. Embassy and
its CIA section were unprepared and powerless. The fall of
Czechoslovakia in 1948 helped deepen Cold War tensions for decades
to come. Vividly written and filled with colorful portraits of the
key participants, On the Edge of the Cold War offers an
authoritative account of this key foreign policy debacle.
By 1945, both the US State Department and US Intelligence saw
Czechoslovakia as the master key to the balance of power in Europe
and a chessboard for the power-game between East and West. In this
book, Igor Lukes illuminates the early stages of the Cold War in
postwar Prague. He paints a critical portrait of Ambassador
Laurence Steinhardt and shows that although Washington understood
that the outcome of the crisis in Prague might shape the political
trends elsewhere in Europe, it ignored signs that democracy in
Czechoslovakia was in trouble. A large section of the book deals
with US Intelligence in postwar Prague. The American intelligence
officials who served in Czechoslovakia from 1945 to 1948 were
committed to the mission of gathering information and protecting
democracy. Yet they were defeated by the Czech and Soviet
clandestine services that proved to be more shrewd and better
informed. Indeed, Lukes reveals that a key American officer may
have been turned by the Russians. Consequently, as the Communists
moved to impose their dictatorship, the American Embassy was
unprepared and helpless.
The Munich crisis of 1938, in which Great Britain and France
decided to appease Hitler's demands to annex the Sudentenland, has
provoked a vast amount of historical writing. But historians have
had, until now, only a vague understanding of the roles played by
the Soviet Union and by Czechoslovakia, the country whose very
existence was at the center of the crisis.
In Czechoslovakia Between Stalin and Hitler, Igor Lukes explores
this turbulent and tragic era from the new perspective of the
Prague government itself. At the center of this study is Edvard
Benes, a Czechoslovak foreign policy strategist and a major player
in the political machinations of the era. The work analyzes the
Prague Government's attempts to secure the existence of the
Republic of Czechoslovakia in the treacherous space between the
millstones of the East and West. It studies Benes's relationship
with Joseph Stalin, outlines the role assigned to Czechoslovak
communists by the VIIth Congress of the Communist International in
1935, and dissects Prague's secret negotiations with Berlin and
Benes's role in the famous Tukhachevsky affair. Using secret
archives in both Prague and Russia, this work is an accurate and
original rendition of the events that sparked the Second World War.
This is a diplomatic history of events leading up to the Munich crisis in 1938 in which Great Britain and France decided to appease Hitler's demands to annex the Sudetenland. While much has been written on this period, this book will be the most comprehensive to date and also the first to integrate a full understanding of the Czech role with wider events.
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