Interview between Carl Gershman and Lenka Kabrhelová
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- Created Date
- 2017
- Description
(Biographical) Carl Gershman was born in New York City in 1943. He has been president of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) for more than 30 years. The organization describes itself as an American, congressionally-funded institution aiming to “strengthen democratic institutions around the world through non-governmental efforts.” In this Havel Conversations interview, Gershman singles out Cuba, China, Russia and North Korea as countries currently of particular interest. Gershman first met Václav Havel following the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, on a visit the then-Czechoslovak president made to the United States. While Gershman suggests he never knew Havel “personally very well,” he stresses that the NED and the Havel administration developed a mutually beneficial relationship over the years that followed. Gerhsman remembers with particular fondness an event the NED organized with Havel at the Library of Congress in 2007 at which dissidents from around the world spoke. Here, he also reflects upon written contributions Havel made to the NED’s journal, and a memorial service his institution organized for Havel in Washington, D.C. in 2012. Gershman suggests he frequently finds himself quoting from Havel’s writings and that he has increasingly identified with Havel’s legacy over the course of his own “political evolution since the 1980s.” He states that he finds Václav Havel’s ideas on individual responsibility – and the ability of individuals to make a difference – particularly inspiring. Similarly, Havel’s insistence that politics address spiritual as well as material questions resonates strongly with Gerhsman’s own views.
- Creator
The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation
- Contributing Institution
- Vaclav Havel Library Foundation
- Supporting Institution
- Florida International University Libraries
- Type
- moving image
- Language
- English
- Standardized Rights Statement
- In Copyright:This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
- Chicago citation style
- The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation. Interview between Carl Gershman and Lenka Kabrhelová. 2017. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI17082900/00001. (Accessed April 20, 2024.)
- APA citation style
- The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, (2017) Interview between Carl Gershman and Lenka Kabrhelová. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI17082900/00001
- MLA citation style
- The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America <http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI17082900/00001>.