this book studies the early stages of the Cold War from the perspective of the U.S. Embassy in postwar Prague. The main personalities include Ambassador Steinhardt and U.S. Intelligence officers Katek and Taggart. They were highly educated and motivated. Nevertheless, in 1948 they suffered a strategic defeat that helped deepen the Cold War tensions for decades to come.

• Acknowledgments


• Introduction. Postwar Czechoslovakia: The Master Key to Europe?


• 1. Resurrecting Czechoslovakia from its Munich Grave


• 2. General Eisenhower Declines to Liberate Prague


• 3. Spring 1945: The Americans Return to the Schönborn Palace


• 4. Ambassador Steinhardt 's Delayed Arrival


• 5. A Chronicle of Wasted Opportunities


• 6. Steinhardt Encounters Reality: Nationalization, Expulsions, and U.S. Military Withdrawal


• 7. America 's First Warning Signs: From the Stechovice Raid Toward the May 1946 Elections


• 8. Great Expectations and Lost Illusions: U.S. Intelligence in Postwar Prague


• 9. Passing the Point of No-Return: Prague Withdraws from the Marshall Plan


• 10. The Communists Exchange Popularity for Absolute Power


• 11. The Schönborn Palace Under Siege: Americans as "Spies and Saboteurs "


• Notes


• Index

Igor Lukes is University Professor of History and International Relations at Boston University. He is the author of Czechoslovakia between Stalin and Hitler: The Diplomacy of Edvard Benes in the Thirties and Rudolf Slansky: His Trials and Trial.