Havel is that rarest of beings, a visionary politician who doesn’t seem to be full of himself. A playwright and human rights activist, he was instrumental in the movement that negotiated the Czechoslovakian communist government out of power and is now the president of the Czech Republic. Havel has been recognized internationally for his poignant essays on totalitarianism and dissent, and his innovative, humanistic administration has become the model for multiparty, democratic government in the Eastern bloc.
