H. E. Alexandr Vondra to the 20th SVU World Congress
American University, Washington, DC, August 8, 2000

Allow me to join the preceding speakers in greeting you at the 20th Congress of the Society of Arts and Sciences.

I am pleased that it is taking place in Washington, DC and that civil society and democracy were chosen as its motto. It were the United States that stood up for the independence and democracy of our fatherland three times in the last century. The first time was in 1918 at the declaration of our independence. The second time, in 1945 through the liberation from the German occupation. And the third time was during the fall of communism and Soviet imperialism after 1989. And it was the American civil society with its ideals of liberty, democracy and equal opportunity for all that always illuminated our way. Last but not least, it was America that provided a refuge and a new start to hundreds of thousands of persecuted Czechs and Slovaks at the time of hardship. Most of you here lived through this experience.

Following the rebirth of democracy and freedom in our country, SVU, like other exile organizations, is searching for a new mission. The work of more than forty years provides an opportunity for looking back and also a challenge to continue. Tradition and the love of the homeland, these are the ties that bind.

After reestablishing democracy and freedom, the Czech Republic, like other postcommunist countries, has been seeking a new relationship with its compatriots abroad. The problems accumulated during the forty or fifty years of separation can not be solved overnight. But we must respond to the tasks of redressing the wrongs, of preserving our heritage, and of stimulating to a cooperation to the benefit of all.

When I arrived in Washington three years ago, I set for myself as the main task - besides the entry into NATO and the growth of the Czech - American business cooperation - the improvement of our relations with Czechs living in America. I have also become the SVU member. I think together we have accomplished a lot of work. This is a good moment to thank you again for your support for the NATO enlargement, which strengthened our ties.

My country paid its respect to those taking part in anti-Nazi and anti-Communist resistance. Legal restitution, all its faults notwithstanding, returned to many of you the property expropriated by the Nazis and the communists. Prague hosted a successful meeting of Sokols from all over the world this July. The Czech Parliament adopted an amendment that enables you to regain your Czech citizenship without losing your American one. And this summer the Parliament passed a law that will for the first time in our history allow you to exercise your right to vote abroad. You will gain the same rights enjoyed by Poles, Russians, Slovenes, but also Germans, Austrians and the British living in the US.

But we cannot limit our efforts to redressing past wrongs. We have at hand the task of preserving and nurturing the rich heritage created by the generations of Czechs in America and elsewhere in the world. SVU and the Czech Republic are positioned to play a significant role here. Initiated by SVU, The Commission for the Preservation of the Czech Cultural Heritage in the United States was established in Belton, Texas in 1997. I am glad that, thanks also to the outstanding efforts of Míla Rechcígl, we can point to its first result - the detailed list of all the Czech-American sites and monuments that will become the basis of a new cultural agreement. In the future we want to focus on the preservation of unique works of art, valuable archives (as in Chicago, for instance), libraries and architecture, while also opening them to the public.

The Czech government appreciates the importance of these cultural values. In recent years we provided scholarships and financially supported the reconstruction of the buildings of Czech- American organizations in Astoria, in Minneapolis/St. Paul and in Cleveland. Our latest, very significant achievement is the agreement about the transfer, reconstruction and joint use of the famed National Building in New York. The Czech government intends to invest several million dollars in its reconstruction. The total value of the Czech aid to Czech communities worldwide from 1995 to 2000 amounted to three million dollars.

However, help from the outside can be useful only to those who want to help themselves. No amount of outside help can save dying communities. I found on my recent visit to the festival at Wilber, Nebraska that living communities exist and flourish. Twenty thousand young people - both Czechs and Americans - gathered to elect Miss Czech-America, the town danced to both rock-and-roll and polka rhythms in the evening and many gathered at the morning mass at the St. Wenceslas church. I think it is especially important to involve young people in this mission. On one hand, an increasing number of young Czechs come to the US to learn and work. The upside is they are capable, learn fast and are unburdened by the past. The downside is that some of them, also due to the restricted US immigration policy, find themselves in conflicts with the law. On the other hand, there is a large number of young Americans who are interested in business. Some of them, influenced by the current stress on diversity, are interested in their Czech heritage. Others returned home after several years spent in Prague and want to stay in touch. Language is not an obstacle. We all understand English.

Student and university exchanges are often constrained by the lack of funds. Nevertheless, more and more Czechs study at top American universities. They often pay their tuition themselves because they know that it is an investment that will pay off. They are being aided by some organizations like the American Fund for Czechoslovak Relief or the Czech Educational Foundation of Texas. Its pioneering efforts were recognized this year by the minister of foreign affairs, who honored the Fund from Austin with the Jan Masaryk Gratias Agit award. Still, these are just local initiatives that can help only a modest number of individuals. It would be great if we were able to gather means to establish a fund that would provide systematic support for Czech students and academic exchanges. I am thinking of something along the lines of the Fulbright Foundation or the German Marshall Fund.

I see an immense challenge in promoting greater awareness of Czech history and presence among the American public. We will have difficult times pursuing our interests in the US without this awareness. Czech elites, both those living home and abroad, are rarely seen in current global discussions. Praiseworthy exceptions - for instance Václav Havel, Marie Jana Korbelová or Václav Klaus - are burdened by their political responsibilities. Others, like Milan Kundera, Michael Novak, Jaroslav Pelikan, Thomas Cech, Jonathan Ledecky or Milos Forman, do not often come to our meetings. The absence of Czech experts - especially in humanities - at the US universities, think-tanks and conferences is alarming. Several fundraising drives to endow Czech studies have failed. I believe, however, that the latest efforts to endow chairs - at the University of Michigan and at Columbia University - will eventually succeed. And I hope that we will live to see a permanent study of the Czech language at Harvard.

In today's world whoever has instant and structured information and is able to use it wins. Petr Bisek is due our recognition for his Americké listy. But I still miss a truly national Czech-American newspaper in English, available both in print and on the Internet. A newspaper that would reach out to third-generation Czech farmers in Iowa, post-February and post-August intellectuals in California and Czech twentysomethings in Chicago and Florida. Are we capable of creating it?

Let me close by expressing one more hope. I think it is both a sin and a mistake that there still is not an appropriate monument to Tomas Garrigue Masaryk in Washington. It is a sin all the more for the fact that Masaryk's wife was an American, that he, just like Americans, fought for justice and against prejudice, that he was inspired by the American democracy, that he negotiated the Czechoslovak independence in the United States, and that without the support of the American president and many Czech-Americans his dream would not have come true in 1918. At the same time, the Poles Kosciuszko and Pulaski stand right in front of the White House and the Hungarian Kossuth is looking at us in the halls of Congress. I know that the notion of a Masaryk monument in Washington has been making rounds among you recently. I firmly believe that this time, unlike in the past, mere intention will not be the end of it.