To Seize a President

According to Czech resistance fighter and historian Radomir Luza in today’s Lidove noviny (h/t ceskenoviny), Czech exiles had plotted to spirit away President Edvard Beneš after the communist coup of February 1948. The president, one of the founders of Czechoslovakia, was to be seized from the secret police StB, and recruited to lead anti-communist resistance. The plot was never attempted because of the president’s poor health. Luza has written, co-written, and edited several books about Czech history, including A History of the Czechoslovak Republic, 1918-1948, The Transfer of the Sudeten Germans: A Study ofCzech- German Relations, 1933-1962, and, with Christina Vella, The Hitler Kiss: A Memoir of the Czech Resistance.