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Vít Smetana
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Journal Articles
Publisher: Journals Gateway
Journal of Cold War Studies (2024) 26 (3): 122–168.
Published: 25 November 2024
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In December 1943, Czechoslovakia became the first country in Central and Eastern Europe to conclude a treaty of alliance and postwar cooperation with the Soviet Union. The signature of this treaty was a voluntary decision taken by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London despite considerable British reservations. The main aim was to secure Czechoslovakia from a repeat of what happened in 1938 with the Nazi German threat and the willingness of the Western powers to accommodate Germany at the Munich showdown. Czechoslovak leaders also wanted to establish a treaty that would oblige the Soviet Union to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of Czechoslovakia. Based on research in the archives of five countries, this article shows how mechanisms of repeated Czechoslovak submission to Soviet “wishes” were already taking shape during the war. Czechoslovakia played a significant role in Soviet geopolitical plans and helped Soviet partners achieve their goals vis-à-vis other allies. Unlike most of the literature on Soviet–Czechoslovak wartime relations, the analysis here presents the exiled Czechoslovak government as an active partner and sincere supporter of Soviet foreign policy aims rather than a victim of a great-power deal at its expense.
Journal Articles
Publisher: Journals Gateway
Journal of Cold War Studies (2021) 23 (3): 208–231.
Published: 09 August 2021
Journal Articles
Publisher: Journals Gateway
Journal of Cold War Studies (2017) 19 (2): 158–214.
Published: 01 April 2017
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Eight experts on the history of East-Central Europe offer commentaries about the book Imposing, Maintaining, and Tearing Open the Iron Curtain: The Cold War and East-Central Europe, 1945–1990 , edited by Mark Kramer and Vít Smetana. The commentators discuss the main contributions of the book and highlight the important questions it raises as well as the issues requiring further research.
Journal Articles
Publisher: Journals Gateway
Journal of Cold War Studies (2015) 17 (3): 220–226.
Published: 01 July 2015
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This review essay provides a critical assessment of a book published in 2012 by Igor Lukes, On the Edge of the Cold War: American Diplomats and Spies in Postwar Prague . Lukes's aim in the book is to explain why the United States failed to prevent Czechoslovakia from being absorbed into the Soviet bloc after the Second World War. Although the book is highly readable and contains useful information, it is professionally unbalanced. Lukes's generally acceptable conclusions are undermined by numerous factual and methodological mistakes. These flaws stem from Lukes's frequently insufficient historical critique of his sources, his neglect of other important documentation, and his tendency to ignore much of the relevant historical literature.
Journal Articles
Publisher: Journals Gateway
Journal of Cold War Studies (2013) 15 (4): 225–232.
Published: 01 October 2013
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Nine experts on Cold War history offer commentaries about John Lewis Gaddis's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of George F. Kennan, the first head of the U.S. State Department's Policy Planning Staff. The commentators come from several countries and offer a wide range of perspectives about Gaddis's George F. Kennan: An American Life , published by Penguin Books in 2011. Although most of the commentators express highly favorable assessments of the book, they also raise numerous points of criticism. Two of the commentators, Barton J. Bernstein and Anders Stephanson, present extended critiques of Gaddis's biography. The forum concludes with a reply by Gaddis to all the commentaries, especially those by Bernstein and Stephanson.