Tajuplný příběh prvního československého vyslance v USA
The Mysterious Story of the First Czechoslovak Envoy to the United States

Summary/Abstract: Jan Hálek (ed.). Americká stopa české Maffie: Vzájemná korespondence prvního československého vyslance v USA Bedřicha Štěpánka s kancléřem prezidenta republiky Přemyslem Šámalem (1921–1938). (Ego: Paměti, deníky, korespondence, vol. 7.) Prague: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny and Masarykův ústav a Archiv AV ČR, 2015, 624 pp, ISBN 978-80-7422-341-9. Bedřich Štěpánek (1884–1943) was an important figure in the Czech anti-Habsburg resistance at home during the First World War and he was the first Czechoslovak envoy to the United States after the founding of Czechoslovakia in October 1918. Following disagreements with embassy officials, as well as intrigues, he had to quit his post, in 1923, and leave the ministry of foreign affairs. He then lived, self-employed, in the United States, where he died in unexplained circumstances. According to the reviewer, this volume of never-before published correspondence between Bedřich Štěpánek and Přemysl Šámal (1867–1941), the chief of staff of the Czechoslovak president, not only partly reveals aspects of Štěpánek’s life, but also provides a unique look behind the scenes of the Czechoslovak diplomatic service in its early years, as well as interwar political developments in the United States and the dramatic international situation at that time.

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