Word: masaryks
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...they seemed to be? New York Timesman James Reston gave an answer that summed up the feelings of many a U.S. citizen. "We have been walking in darkness, if not in danger for a long time," he wrote. "The Communist triumph in Prague and the sudden death of Jan Masaryk were merely flashes of light that showed us how dark were the skies over central and eastern Europe...
...liberal, I wish to express my shock and resentment at the attitudes expressed by Professor Matthiessen and Geoffrey White concerning the death of Jan Masaryk. To millions of democrats the suicide of one of the greatest fighters for social and political freedom in the face of a tragic and reactionary revolution holds lessons neither Professor Matthiessen nor Mr. White would share. In death, Masaryk symbolizes the disillusionment of a non-Communist progressive who sincerely and honestly attempted to work with Communists, and whose despair at a future without liberty for the Czech people could find no more eloquent protest than...
Although many of us remain opposed to the inadequate and self-defeating Truman doctrine, it is unfortunate for us to see it twisted by Prof. Matthiessen as to appear the most important contributing factor to Masaryk's suicide. I am sure Masaryk had far less confidence in the "broad representation" manifest in this new "democracy" than has Matthiessen, or else Masaryk need not have died to protest...
Geofirey White's analysis is frankly more cynical. To him it signifies "the beginnings of a new type of society," with Masaryk symbolic of bourgeois liberal opposition to "its conditions." To me, this statement exemplifies the callous disdain Communists held toward personal freedoms, and points up the careful hypocrisy with which they continue to use civil liberties in all democracies...
...Masaryk's suicide would appear to deny these hopes, and to indicate an increasing tension between the Coming-form and the Truman doctrine. In this country we can still relieve that tension by rejecting the Truman doctrine. Masaryk himself, second to none in his advocacy of international democracy at the United Nations, recognized the folly of that doctrine...