Vaclav Havel

I n his Prague office, Czech President Vaclav Havel sat for a 30-minute interview with Times correspondent Dean E. Murphy despite the stress of the moment. He had just concluded a war of words with Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus over the direction of Czech society, he was preparing for a trip to the United States and he was in the midst of the latest government crisis: the removal of the Czech defense minister.

President Clinton, a leader known for thinking great thoughts on weekend retreats, was shown the sights of this history-steeped capital Tuesday night by a different sort of Renaissance man, Czech President Vaclav Havel.

JIMMY CARTER, United States. The former president has devoted his post-White House years to safeguarding human rights and fighting poverty and disease around the world. The Carter Center in Atlanta houses a global public-policy think tank and two foundations devoted to international issues. Carter turned his attention closer to home in 1991, creating the Atlanta Project to fight poverty in the United States. "We might know our maids, but we don't go into our maids' homes. . .

Dissident-turned-politician Vaclav Havel took office as the first president of the Czech Republic and pledged to preserve close ties with Slovakia. "I believe we will maintain truly deep, friendly and cooperative relations with our closest neighbor, the Slovak Republic," Havel told thousands of cheering supporters from the balcony of Prague Castle.

Vaclav Havel, who helped Czechoslovakia break free of communism but as president couldn't stop it from splitting in two, was elected president of the new Czech Republic on Tuesday. A playwright who led the 1989 "Velvet Revolution," Havel was Czechoslovakia's first post-Communist president and remains the best-known Czech politician at home and abroad. Even many of his opponents said they could imagine no one else as the new republic's first president.

To the browsing eye, only the bold legend "Foreword by Vaclav Havel" makes this volume stand out among countless others with equally undistinguished covers and unfamiliar authors. That is enough. During the two euphoric years when we knew him as the president of Czechoslovakia, Havel brought out the best in us. In an infanticidal age, he reminded us of the child within. His name on the dust jacket is reason enough to reach for the book.

At least the inglorious tenure of Vaclav Havel as president of Czechoslovakia, now terminated by his resignation from that office, has put a dent in the notion that if only artists and poets were in command, the world would be a better place. Whatever the undoubted bravery and resolve Havel displayed as an opponent of the Communist regime, his conduct as president was far from appetizing.

Vaclav Havel, the playwright who led the "Velvet Revolution" against communism, stepped down as president Monday after failing to halt Czechoslovakia's disintegration. The resignation left the country without a president as its Czech and Slovak regions moved toward a formal dissolution of the 74-year-old nation. Unlike in Yugoslavia and parts of the former Soviet Union, a peaceful split appears certain.

Vaclav Havel, the playwright who led the "Velvet Revolution" against communism, stepped down as president after failing to halt Czechoslovakia's disintegration. The resignation left the country without a president as its Czech and Slovak regions moved toward a formal dissolution of the 74-year-old nation. Unlike in Yugoslavia and parts of the former Soviet Union, a peaceful split appears certain. Havel was an increasingly lonely voice against ending the union of Czechs and Slovaks.