Remembering Václav Havel on his 90th birth anniversary, and his solidarity with free Cubans
“I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you.” – President Václav Havel, New Year’s Message, 1990
Václav Havel October 5, 1936 – December 18, 2011 ( Levan Ramishvili )
October 5, 2026, marks the 90th anniversary of Václav Havel’s birth. Across the United States events are being held to observe his birth anniversary and “the ideas and values that continue to make his legacy relevant today” at Havel 90.
His nonviolent resistance and dedication to truth in successfully resisting totalitarian rule in Czechoslovakia remains a powerful legacy and example that are relevant today.
However his leadership after communism, and solidarity with others is equally important.
First Havel advocated for, and presided over the Velvet Revolution in 1989 that nonviolently freed Czechoslovakia from decades of communist rule. He then became president of a free Czechoslovakia. However, the Velvet Divorce of 1993 was not something he wanted.
Havel opposed it, and in July 1992 he resigned the presidency refusing to preside over the partition. This is a news report made at the time.
The federal legislature ( Federální shromáždění ) voted to dissolve Czechoslovakia in November 1992, and the separation took effect at midnight on December 31, 1992 creating the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Independence began on January 1, 1993.
In January 1993, just months after stepping down as leader of the former Czechoslovakia, Havel was elected the first president of the new Czech Republic.
In 2002, President Vaclav Havel addressed the Cuban people and offered words that should be heeded now and in the future:
“Our world, as a whole, is not in the best of shape and the direction it is headed in may well be quite ambivalent. But this does not mean that we are permitted to give up on free and cultivated thinking and to replace it with a set of utopian clichés. That would not make the world a better place, it would only make it worse. On the contrary, it means that we must do more for our own freedom, and that of others.”
In 2002 Havel welcomed Oswaldo Payá, of Cuba’s Christian Liberation Movement, to Prague after successfully advocating, together with other European leaders, for the Cuban dissident leader to receive the Sakharov Prize in 2002. The Czech President had also nominated Oswaldo Payá for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Oswaldo Payá and President Václav Havel in Prague (2002)
Frank Calzon in his OpEd, “Remembering a champion of freedom” published in the Miami Herald on Sept 13, 2012 wrote on how Havel championed the cause of Cuban freedom.
“After becoming president Havel insisted that, just as the Czechs had been helped by the democratic world, they lend their voices to the cries for help from other oppressed people in Burma, Tibet, North Korea, China, and Cuba. He welcomed to Prague such Cuban dissidents as Oswaldo Payá, Raúl Rivero, Carlos Franqui and the Ladies in White. He founded the International Committee to Promote Democracy in Cuba bringing together many democratic leaders, including former Chilean President Patricio Aylwin, the democratically elected president who followed Gen. Augusto Pinochet. At a private dinner in Washington, Havel assured me of his support for Cuba’s freedom “no matter how many years it would take.” He knew the importance of symbols and the power of the word: In a video made for distribution around the world he advised tourists enjoying Cuban beaches to remember that there are political prisoners on the island.”
The subjects President Havel raised, fought and advocated for were serious and solemn, but at the same time he had a great sense of humor. He also understood that humor is powerful, and should not to be underestimated. He drove this home in a video he made in solidarity with Cuban political prisoners in 2006, in which he told the story of being taken to a dentist’s office when he was a political prisoner in communist Czechoslovakia, and the absurdity of other patients in the room pretending not to see him dressed in a common prisoners uniform. The video ends on a powerful note about the moral pitfalls of beach tourism to Cuba. It is a short, funny, powerful and bittersweet video.
