President Klaus on lessons of the past

In a speech at the university campus that was the scene of the Nazi brutalities, President Vaclav Klaus said that the two anniversaries – one relating to Nazi, the other to Communist oppression - were closely intertwined and we should forget neither of them. He said it was important to recognize what had led the country from one form of oppression into another and noted that many Czech intellectuals had naively embraced leftist utopian visions and that after having been disappointed by the Western allies Czechs had blindly sought security guarantees from the East.