In the fall of 1989, Czechoslovak citizens took to the streets of Prague to peacefully protest the repressive Communist regime that had maintained a stranglehold on the country for over forty years. Within months, this Velvet Revolution caused the regime to collapse, democracy to take root, and a leading dissident who had been in prison a year prior, Vclav Havel, to be elected and sworn in as president of the new Czechoslovak Republic. The pro-democracy Czechoslovaks were assisted in this effort by the U.S. embassy in Prague, whose staff persistently advocated for human rights using all available diplomatic channels.
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- United States of America
