Osud majetku IBM v Československu v rokoch 1951 – 1961
The Fate of the Property of IBM in Czechoslovakia in the Period 1951-1961

Summary/Abstract: The question of the imposition of state administration on the property of IBM in Czechoslovakia in September 1952 is one of the still un-researched problems of Czechoslovak – American relations in the period after the communists seized power in Prague. It was retaliation for the blocking of a Czechoslovak rolling mill in the USA and against the American suspension of most favoured national status for Czechoslovakia in the framework of GATT at the beginning of the 1950s. For decades, this retaliatory measure was part of a package of open economic and financial questions in Czechoslovak – American bilateral relations. In this package of open bilateral questions, the most important were: on the American side compensation for nationalized property in Czechoslovakia, and on the Czechoslovak side the return of 18.4 tons of monetary gold. Other questions, including state control of the property of IBM, were secondary and did not represent neuralgic points in relations between the Soviet satellite and Atlantic superpower. Talks continued for decades, although interrupted by periods of “silence”. The USA and Czechoslovakia reached a final agreement only on 29 January 1982.

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