Rita Klimova; Czechoslovakian Ambassador to U.S.
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Rita Klimova, 61, a former dissident who became Czechoslovakia’s first ambassador to the United States after the overthrow of Communism. Klimova taught political economics at Charles University in Prague until her dismissal after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion that crushed Alexander Dubcek’s liberal reforms. In 1989, she became spokeswoman for the peaceful “Velvet Revolution” that toppled Communism and brought Vaclav Havel to the presidency. Havel appointed Klimova as ambassador to the United States in 1990. In Prague on Thursday of leukemia.
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