PRAGUE — One year ago this week in front of the Gothic spires of Prague Castle, President Obama laid out his vision of a nuclear-weapons-free world and told thousands of cheering Czechs he would "put an end to Cold War thinking."
As Obama returns to Prague Castle on Thursday to sign a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia, Czechs differ over whether his conciliatory dialogue with their former occupier is dangerously naïve or a laudable step toward global security.
Their sentiments are often linked to memories of the Soviet-inspired communist regime that crumbled in 1989.
A former anti-communist fighter and U.S. Army veteran, Milan Paumer, 78, worries that Obama will make concessions to ensure that Russia abides by the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which requires each country to reduce its deployable nuclear warheads by 30% over seven years.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has been pushing for some kind of opt-out provision in case the United States develops its missile-defense strategy in Europe, which Russian officials see as a threat to their military security.
"With Russians you have to say, 'We are doing this. If you don't like it, too bad,' " said Paumer, who defied 24,000 East German and Soviet police during a 29-day escape from Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia to the West. He later lived for 40 years in Miami.
Czechs who lack communist-era battle scars don't necessarily take that view.
"I don't have a personal negative experience with Russia," said architect Vitezslav Petr, 27, praising Obama's "open hand" to Russia. "That is more important than prejudices based on the past."
Confrontation not always answer
Petr welcomed the election of Obama, as did many Europeans who embraced him as the antithesis of President Bush, whose war in Iraq was deeply unpopular here. Obama's approval ratings have been higher in Europe than at home.
His policy of engaging adversaries, though, sometimes gets a cooler reception in the former Eastern Bloc.
That makes sense to David Gaydecka, 37, a concert promoter who says engagement did nothing to stop Soviet tanks from invading Czechoslovakia in 1968 or Adolf Hitler's troops from marching in 30 years earlier.
"I am glad Obama made people believe the world could be a better place. On the other hand, he seems naïve," said Gaydecka, who supported a proposed radar base in the Czech Republic, part of the Bush administration's plan for a missile-defense shield in Central Europe ostensibly to shoot down Iranian rockets. "His diplomacy is not stopping the Iranians from developing nuclear weapons."
Gaydecka said, "When he was president of Russia, Vladimir Putin said he would aim missiles at European cities if Bush persisted with his missile-defense shield. Obama shouldn't cave in."
Obama canceled the radar base last September, citing its cost and poor test results. His administration is developing an alternative missile-defense plan.
Czechs who risked their political capital to gain government approval for the U.S. radar deployment, which roughly 70% of Czechs opposed, remain unhappy with the cancellation. "It was not the best possible way," said Veronika Kuchynova Smigolova, a former security policy director at the Foreign Ministry who lobbied for the radar base.
Now an ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, she is not impressed by Obama's impending treaty signing, which she says won't break any new ground.
Her reasoning infuriates Jan Hamacek, the leader of the Czech Parliament's foreign affairs committee for the left-wing Social Democrats.
"This treaty could serve as an invaluable confidence-building measure between the two countries," Hamacek said. "We have to try."
Be cautious with 'reset'
Across the political spectrum in the Czech Republic, Obama has received praise for his handling of Afghanistan, where centrists such as Sen. Jaromir Stetina say U.S. forces have been keeping violence from escalating.
Stetina hopes Obama will show the "same strength" to protect Georgia from Russia.
Former president Václav Havel expressed that concern last July in an open letter to Obama. The letter, signed by 20 other former Central and Eastern European leaders, is a reminder that the Cold War is not a distant memory. It said, "We want to ensure that too narrow an understanding of Western interests does not lead to the wrong concessions to Russia."
Petr Kolar, Czech ambassador to the United States, says the "reset" of Russian-U.S. relations is likely to come up during a dinner after the treaty signing. "Just because you push the reset button doesn't mean you lose your memory," he said. "And who better to address such concerns than Obama himself?"
sources: >By Dinah A. Spritzer,
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