The president of the Czech Republic was not always a politician. Vaclav Havel's first career was in the theatre. Throughout his work in drama, Havel satirized the Communistic government of Czechoslovakia. He became a dissident because of his writings and soon began political movements that eventually brought him to power in his country.
             Havel is considered by may to be one of the best Czech writers there are around today. Yet, as a president, he is harshly criticized.; It is interesting to speculate whether Vaclav is a better writer or a better president.
             Vaclav Havel was born in Prague on October 5, 1936. In 1951 he completed his compulsory schooling. Being the offspring of a prominent Prague businessman's family, he was barred from pursuing regular studies afterwards. For four years, while taking an apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory technician, he was attending evening classes at a grammar school. It was at the age of nineteen that he started publishing studies and articles in literary and theatre magazines. Family tradition has led him toward embracing the humanist values of Czech culture that were suppressed or destroyed in the 1950's. As he was not allowed, due to his family background, to study humanities, he went on to a Technical University where he spent two years (Havel, Disturbing The Peace, ps. 20-21).
             After completing his military service, he worked as a stagehand at the ABC Theatre and later, from 1960, in the Theatre on the Balustrade. The Theatre on the Balustrade produced his first plays, most importantly The Garden Party (1963), a piece representing in an outstanding manner the strong liberal tendencies that were occurring in Czech culture, society, and government in the 1960's which culminated in the Prague Spring of 1968. At that time Vaclav was taking part in public and cultural life as one of the champions of democracy in Czechoslovakia. In the second half of the '60'...