Interview between Bill Clinton and Lenka Kabrhelová

Permanent Link:: http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI14103414/00001

Material Information

Subjects / Keywords:: Havel, Václav
Clinton, Bill, 1946-
Ex-presidents -- United States -- Interviews
Charta 77

Scope and Content:: Albright (Madeleine), Charter 77, Dissent, Friendship, Human Rights, Jazz, Legacy (Havel), Mandela (Nelson), Media, NATO, Prague, Putin (Vladimir), Russia, Ukraine. ( English, )
Summary:: William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton was president of the United States between 1993 and 2001. Of all the US presidents that Václav Havel met, Clinton is the one he referred to as becoming a “friend.” Clinton and Havel worked closely on preparations for the Czech Republic’s accession to NATO in 1999; the American president also supported the Czech Republic’s successful European Union candidacy. In this interview, Clinton remembers several official visits he made to the Czech Republic, recalling his experiences playing saxophone at Prague jazz club Reduta and the “gift” of spending time conversing one-on-one with Havel. He reflects upon the predictions the two men made for Europe when they first met (judging that they “did and didn’t come true” in the interim). In addition, Clinton praises Havel’s keen understanding of “how politics ought to work,” agreeing with the late Czech president that “the absence of communism” does not in itself guarantee democracy, and that politicians should remain attentive to “minority rights as well as majority rule.”