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In honour of Shirley Temple Black

February 11, 2014

Illustration

The American actress and diplomat Shirley Temple Black has died at the age of 85. She served as ambassador to Czechoslovakia in the years 1989–1993, living through the fall of the Communist regime, the Velvet Revolution and the initial years of the presidency of Václav Havel, a period characterised by a growth in trust between post-Communist Czechoslovakia and the United States and the establishment of important contacts.

Among the most significant events during her time in this country were the anniversary celebrations of the liberation of Pilsen by the US Army in May 1990 (pictured), which it had been forbidden to mark during four decades of totalitarianism, and the first visit by an American president to Czechoslovakia, which George Bush sr. carried out on 17 November 1990.

In 2004, the Václav Havel Library published a unique bilingual book of diplomatic dispatches between the US Embassy in Prague and the State Department in Washington entitled Praha-Washington-Praha / Prague-Washington-Prague, edited and prepared for publication by Vilém Prečan.

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