Činnost Ferdinanda Peroutky ve Spojených státech za studené války

Abstract

The Activities of Ferdinand Peroutka in the United States during the Cold War.

This article analyzes the Cold War-era exile activities of Ferdinand Peroutka, a famous Czech journalist, and his loyalty to the United States. Peroutka was among the most prominent Czechoslovak democratic exiles and, for ten years, he played a key and unifying role in the activities of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, an organization he ultimately abandoned. Peroutka spent most of his American professional life working for Radio Free Europe (RFE) as the director of the Czechoslovak section. Even in retirement, he wrote weekly commentaries for RFE. His positions, which can be described as consistently pro-American, often provoked hostility of some members of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, who viewed Peroutka as an American emissary. Despite his work for the United States government, Peroutka never overcame the feeling of being an outsider in the United States. Peroutka’s merit in exile is documented by the outstanding quality of his countless commentaries transmitted to Czechoslovakia by RFE for decades.

Keywords: Peroutka, Council of Free Czechoslovakia, Radio Free Europe, exile, Cold War