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Last week the war was returning to where it had come from. A mighty ally of Czechoslovakia had advanced within a hundred miles of her eastern frontier. Five years, to the week, after German boots had hit the cobblestones of Prague, and the solar plexus of the world, the Czechoslovak Government ordered its people to join, in "an armed uprising," the approaching "Army of Liberation."
The call came from London. The "Army of Liberation" was coming from Soviet Russia. There was not too much reason to expect that the call can be heeded by nine million Czechoslovaks who, in chains and humiliation, are forced to produce huge quantities of weapons for their German masters. There was some doubt whether Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov's forces will be, unequivocally, an army of liberation. But all the way from London to Russia, throughout the human mass of tension and torture that is Europe, there is little doubt that Czechoslovakia's experience with liberation will answer the one fundamental question: What is victory?
The Czechs thought they knew. To survive is an obsession with them; it is also their greatest talent. One of the smaller of Europe's peoples, they never had notions of grandeur, always realized that their role is to react rather than to act: to adjust themselves to conditions not of their making—and to survive. Unlike their next-door Slav neighbors, the Poles, the Czechs never believed in having more than one superior enemy at a time, never dreamed of going down in a romantic blaze of glory. Their national history is one long, continued search for allies. To them, foreign policy is not an appendix but the core of national policy.
The man who administers Czechoslovak foreign policy may set a powerful precedent for the liberation of Europe. Foreign Minister and No. 2 man of the first Government in Exile preparing to go home is Jan Masaryk. In his person, career and present predicaments the whole Continent might recognize itself.
Father, Son and Dr. Benes. Most likely the best pianist among contemporary foreign ministers, and very probably the most accomplished cook (specialties: risotto, stews, soups; secret: powdered garlic), Masaryk tries hard to live down his name. He is a chip off a colossal old block: Professor Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, his father, was not just the creator of Czechoslovakia but a sage of world stature.