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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Albright Gets Czech Salute On Home Soil

Associated Press

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, basking in a warm homecoming to her native city, accepted the Czech Republic’s highest civilian award Monday, welcomed the country into NATO and peppered her speeches with the Czech language.

Clearly enjoying herself, she sang the U.S. national anthem lustily at the end of a speech in Prague’s art nouveau municipal building and declared the Czech Republic to be a member of the free world now and forever.

In her speech to an invited audience, Albright spoke mostly in English, although she repeated key sections in Czech.

“Nothing compares to the feeling of coming to my original home, Prague, as secretary of state of the United States, for the purpose of saying to you: Welcome home. … You are coming home, in fact, to the community of freedom that you never left in spirit.”

Gesturing to Czech President Vaclav Havel, who watched the speech from a special presidential box, Albright said, “Truth does conquer, after all.” This was a reference to the motto “Truth Conquers” that appears on the presidential crest; they are the words of Jan Hus, a theologian and Czech national hero.

Nevertheless, Albright had a few words of stern advice for the Czechs, who were selected with Poland and Hungary to join NATO by the end of this century.

“I trust you will also be leaders in the effort to keep deadly weapons from dangerous rogue states, even if it means losing a sale from time to time,” she said. The Czech Republic, with a large arms industry left over from the days when it armed the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact, has sold weaponry to Iraq and other countries the United States is trying to isolate, explaining that it cannot accept restrictions on its best export industry.