Posted on 12/18/2011 7:21:31 AM PST by Hojczyk
Vaclav Havel wove theater into revolution, leading the charge to peacefully bring down communism in a regime he ridiculed as "Absurdistan" and proving the power of the people to overcome totalitarian rule.
Shy and bookish, with a wispy mustache and unkempt hair, the dissident playwright was an unlikely hero of Czechoslovakia's 1989 "Velvet Revolution" after four decades of suffocating repression — and of the epic struggle that ended the wider Cold War.
He was his country's first democratically elected president, leading it through the early challenges of democracy and its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, though his image suffered as his people discovered the difficulties of transforming their society.
A former chain-smoker who had a history of chronic respiratory problems dating back to his years in communist jails, Havel died Sunday morning at his weekend home in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant Sabina Tancevova said. His wife Dagmar and a nun who had been caring for him the last few months of his life were by his side, she said. He was 75.
"A great fighter for the freedom of nations and for democracy has died," said Lech Walesa, the fellow anti-communist activist who founded neighboring Poland's Solidarity movement.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Vaclav Havel ... anti-Communist, Patriot. Your country and the world was better off because of you. RIP
Rest in Peace, President Havel. You did good work.
A truely great man. This is a sad day. My prayers for his family.
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A great man and patriot. RIP.
A great hero of Freedom - RIP.
Courage and greatness defined.
May God keep him.
He was a big Zappa fan.
While so many of the elite intellectuals were defending the socialist cause and serving Marxism, Havel was the fish swimming against the flow.
A real Patriot for freedom who put his life on the line.
The world has lost a courageous defender of liberty. May he rest in peace.
Sorry to say, that was not Vaclav Havel, he bought into the scam.....you got him confused with Vaclav Klaus.
RIP Mr. Havel...a patriot of your country, your courage will not be forgotten.
Condolences to the family and friends.
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