Czechoslovak, West German Presidents End Diplomatic Isolation of Waldheim

The presidents of Czechoslovakia and West Germany met Thursday with Kurt Waldheim in a break with the international diplomatic isolation imposed on the Austrian leader because of his wartime past.

Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel indirectly criticized Waldheim, warning of the dangers of lying about the past. But a defiant Waldheim said afterward, “I didn’t lie about anything.”

Before Havel and President Richard von Weizsaecker of West Germany shook hands with Waldheim in a foyer of the Salzburg Festival Hall, American Jewish activists shouted, “Shame for meeting Nazi Waldheim!” before being subdued.

Havel and Weizsaecker attended the opening ceremony of the annual Salzburg festival of music and drama at the invitation of the provincial governor. At the ceremony, Havel and Weizsaecker chatted with Waldheim, the former U.N. secretary general, and then attended a lunch with him.

Both leaders repeatedly emphasized that the visits were private, not official. Waldheim, elected to a six-year term as president in 1986, has acknowledged that he concealed his World War II service as a junior officer in a German army intelligence unit that has been linked to atrocities in the Balkans. But he denied membership in, or sympathy with, the Nazi Party.

As the keynote speaker of the festival opening ceremony, Havel, without mentioning Waldheim by name, said there is “no full freedom where full truth is not given free passage.”