The Foreign Service Journal, December 2009

comment about my family life: “He has good relations with his children, with whom he spends a lot of time.” And: “He is attentive and respectful of his wife, perhaps because of her ill health.” (Charlotte had the first of two back op- erations while we were in Prague.) As for me, I “did not suffer from over-tidiness” — several embassy em- ployees said so. I gave the appearance of being content, the report continued, but was not very skilled in social situa- tions and became angry when criti- cized. There was “no evidence of an interest in other women,” and I was careful with money. With other mem- bers of the diplomatic corps I had only polite contact. A long section of the report was di- vided between official and unofficial activities. The latter section led off with one of the oft-repeated notations that when I arrived in June 1975, the cul- tural section had a stack of 200 copies of a book about the Russian invasion of Prague. Also: “He managed to smug- gle a politically sensitive film showing the living standard of Czech émigrés into an English-teaching seminar.” Much was made of my contact with Professor Holton, and that in one town he was spotted with a camera that had supposedly come from me. “He organized various social occa- sions at his flat at which he invited var- ious contacts from the right-wing cultural, technical, scientific and polit- ical spheres. Through these people he gained knowledge of Charter 77 [the Czech human rights and legal reform organization] and showed great inter- est in obtaining concrete information about it.” At these film evenings, the report continued, “he gave the people various suspect and unfriendly publications, many coming from right-wing émigré sources abroad.” In the Kafkaesque communist political language of that era, “right” meant “left” in politics. Next came a list of towns I had visited, and 40 persons alleged to be my regu- lar contacts. (I recognized only six of the names.) Finally, the document ended with a conclusion in capital letters: WE REC- OMMEND THIS FILE BE CLOS- ED FOR 15 YEARS. That was it. At first I was upset. Charlotte and I had worked hard for three years both to affirm the worth of individual Czechs and Slovaks and to promote better relations between our two countries. The final report had lit- tle positive to say about me, and some of its comments were clear fabrica- tions. Maybe I should find a Prague phone book and call Captain Richard Hoffman, the principal author, to see if he was still alive. Maybe we two for- mer adversaries could meet, swap sto- ries and come to some sort of closure. “Forget it,” an inner voice said firmly, “It’s all over.” Images floated in front of me, a set of black-and-white impressions of the Prague we knew: smog-filled air, streets slick with win- ter grime, people in heavy coats and funny hats shuffling along, laden with bulging plastic sacks. Then came im- ages of today: younger people, bright neon lights, streets jammed withWest- ern tourists and row after row of name- brand clothing shops where the head- quarters of the Socialist Youth League and the Czechoslovak Sport Fisher- men’s Association once stood. “Forget it,” the inner voice said again, as if there were any question by now. “It’s over,” I acknowledged aloud, and quickly closed the file. ■ 52 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9 Maybe we two former adversaries could meet, swap stories and come to some sort of closure. CHANGE OF ADDRESS Moving? Take AFSA With You! Change your address online at: www.afsa.org/comment.cfm Or Send change of address to: AFSA Membership Department 2101 E Street NW Washington, DC 20037