Clinton in Prague. Presidents went for a beer 25 years ago, then longing tones filled Reduta – ČT24 – Czech Television
George Bush’s visit to Czechoslovakia in November 1990 was particularly solemn. The American president was in the republic for the first time, moreover only a year after the fall of communism. Bill Clinton’s journey three years later was different in almost every way. While Bush’s visit went down in history mainly thanks to a famous speech on Wenceslas Square, in which he assured the Czechoslovaks that the United States would not leave them in the lurch, Clinton’s stay in Prague is best known for visiting the Golden Tiger Pub and the president’s performance in Reduta. But despite the relaxed moments, Clinton’s trip to Prague also had important political implications.
It was the second time in his life that Bill Clinton stepped out of the blue-and-white presidential boeing at Ruzyne Airport on January 11, 1994, before five o’clock in the afternoon. He was first in Prague in 1970 as a student. This time his main political goal was the summit of the Visegrad Group, so in the Czech Republic he met not only domestic politics, but also Slovak, Polish and Hungarian politics.
Havel, beer and jazz
He left the American for Prague Castle, where he met with his Czech President Václav for Havel, privately together for about a quarter of an hour, then politicians, including the then Prime Minister Klaus and Ministers Zielenie and Baudys, joined the meeting.
In the evening, Clinton, accompanied by his delegation led by the then United States Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright and President Havel, set out on a tour of Prague. They arrived at the Golden Tiger before half past eight, but the presidential visit to the Old Town pub was not without complications. A crowd of journalists gathered at the door, and their efforts to get in collided with the opposing efforts of police and American organizers, resulting in minor skirmishes.
After dinner and beer, Clinton and Havel went to Reduta on Národní třída. Along the way, they stopped at a memorial plaque commemorating November 17, 1989. According to ČTK, the American president played the jazz songs Summer Time and My Funny Valentine on the saxophone he had previously received from Václav Havel.
You take us as unequal partners, Wales was angry
Clinton’s second day in Prague was more of a regular state visit. He held talks with the presidents of the Visegrad countries, first bilaterally – with Hungarian President Árpád Göncz, then with Polish Lech Wales, and finally with the then head of Slovakia Michal Kováč. Then all five presidents had lunch together.
However, the presidents’ negotiations were not entirely smooth. The head of the White House arrived in Prague from Brussels, where the idea of a Partnership for Peace was born, of which the former Warsaw Pact states would become members. However, this was not something that would meet the ambitions of Central European politicians. After all, the commentary of the German television ZDF at the time called Clinton’s visit controversial. “Many Czechs are asking why the American president actually came when he blocked their country’s trip to the West in Brussels,” the commentator said.
In his lunch speech, Lech Walesa criticized the partnership as a manifestation of the West’s approach to Central European countries as unequal partners. “It’s a step taken in the right direction, but it’s too short,” he said. However, Clinton assured Visegrad politicians that NATO would accept them. He said it was only a matter of time before the Alliance expanded.
Mayan debate, tram stopped and twenty protesters
After a working lunch, Bill Clinton also met with businessmen, economic ministries and Prime Minister Václav Klaus, and they met at the Máj department store. From today’s point of view, such a choice of location may seem curious, at the time it was one of the American investments in Prague – the department store belonged to Kmart between 1991 and 1995. However, its Czech branch was then bought by Tesco, so the American ownership of the Prague department store is a forgotten chapter.
Historically, the American president’s second visit to Prague also had an impact on everyday life. Clinton lived at the Hilton Hotel in Karlín, and when he arrived and left, traffic stopped in the area – cars could not run on the highway, tram number 3 stopped on Vltavská and waited for the Hlávka bridge to cross. It was similar in other places where the presidential convoy passed.
The US President’s visit was accompanied by a demonstration. Anarchists and members of the radical left-wing Revolutionary Solidarity movement met in the Old Town Square at the time Clinton’s plane landed. According to ČTK, there were about twenty of them.
The presidents of the USA visited the Czechia four more times
Bill Clinton, as the incumbent president, no longer visited the Czechia, he arrived later when he was “retired”. After his departure, almost nine years before he received permission to land an aircraft with the Air Force One sign at Prague Airport again. At that time, in November 2002, George Bush Jr. was on board, but he did not come to a state visit, but to the NATO summit, of which the Czechia and the other three Visegrad countries became members three years earlier.
Bush arrived once again in 2007, when it was really a presidential visit to the Czech Republic and one of its main topics was the radar in Brdy. Bush’s successor Barack Obama has also been to the Czech Republic twice. He first arrived shortly after taking office in 2009, then a year later, when he signed a new START agreement with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague, reducing the number of nuclear warheads in both countries.