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Igor Lukes
A failure of intelligence: The United States and the Communistic Coup in Czechoslovakia 1948
Keywords: Amerikanische Geheimdienste nach 1945, Kommunistische Machtergreifung
The Czechoslovak political crisis from the end of World War II to 1948 did not have a preordained conclusion. It was not determined solely by the weight of the emerging blocs and it was not simply for the Kremlin to dictate. This article examines the intelligence dimension of the contest between Stalinism and democracy. At the center of the study are Colonel Charles Katek, chief of the American Military Mission, and Spencer L. Taggart, an American diplomat in postwar Prague.
The Americans who were in the business of collecting secrets in postwar Prague had access to some of the highest-ranking officials. It would be hard to imagine any other country where there existed such a harmony of interests between the intelligence collectors and their sources. Moreover, Katek and Taggart were highly educated, they understood the history of Central Europe, and they spoke Czech. Nevertheless, the cause of democracy suffered a swift and humiliating defeat. This article seeks to identify its causes.
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag
Print ISSN: 0042-5702
Volume: 55, 02/2007
Pages: 201 - 236