I also helped write the five-page statement of principles that Civic Forum issued in late November. That was the first public expression of what the new government wanted to do.

Nonsense. I would like to say, quite formally and clearly, that my government would never allow something like this.

Uncertainty is normal in the first few days of a new government.

Then in 1969, I spent the spring term at Cornell University in New York. The invasion of August 1968 had already happened, but the hardline regime took several months to crack down on dissidents.

For 15 years the Government of Burma has refused to implement recommendations made by the UN and the situation is getting worse, ... In fact, the situation in Burma is much more severe compared to other countries in which the Security Council has chosen to act in recent years.

By the time I returned to Czechoslovakia, I had an understanding of the principles of the market.