The photograph was taken on 11 January 1994 in the Prague pub U Zlatého tygra (The Golden Tiger). It captures an informal meeting between President Havel and President Clinton, along with the Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal and the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright. The evening in the pub was part of an unofficial program of President Clinton’s visit to the Czech Republic.
Karel Hulata, the landlord of U Zlatého tygra, described the atmosphere of the evening as relaxing. The presidents ordered a beer and stayed for about two hours. The security detail stayed outside the pub and the photographers stayed for a few minutes only. The other guests of the pub were locals and regulars, but their names had to be announced in advance. The presidents sat at a table facing the bar, and there is still a picture from the evening hanging on the wall above the table.
Bill Clinton’s unofficial program continued in the Prague jazz club Reduta. President Havel gave Bill Clinton a saxophone with the symbol of Občanské Fórum (Civic Forum), which was a spontaneous platform for independent civic activities established after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The aim of the Forum was a transition to a democratic society and its first leader was Václav Havel. Bill Clinton tried the saxophone on the spot with the local band, playing the song “Summertime,” among others.
A short video recording from this night is available here.
A picture gallery is available here.
From the News Conference with Visegrad leaders in Prague, 12 January 1994.
“I think the best part of my unofficial time in Prague was becoming reacquainted with the city, walking across the bridge again after 24 years and seeing the family I stayed with 24 years ago, and just meeting the people. I was very pleased to see the large number of people who came out yesterday to see me and say hello. And seeing the changes here, it was very rewarding, and it stiffened my determination to continue to support these kinds of changes.
Now, I had a lot of fun playing the saxophone. The President gave me a saxophone, you know, with his name inscribed on it, so it’s a gift I will always treasure. The nice thing about the music we played last night was that the Czech musicians with whom I played were so good that they covered up all my shortcomings.” Source.
The official part of Bill Clinton’s visit to Prague included negotiations about the Partnership for Peace program at the Prague Castle. President Havel announced that the Czech Republic approved of the program and is ready to start fulfilling its duty under it. The next item on the agenda was a meeting with representatives of the Visegrad Four states and a discussion about the consolidation of democracy in the former Soviet Bloc.
Bill Clinton considered Václav Havel a distinctive personality. In 1994 he came to Prague from the NATO summit in Brussels. “I established a real relationship with Mr Havel and I stayed close to him. He took me to one of the jazz clubs in Prague, where he had basically hatched the Velvet Revolution,” Mr Clinton said. “It was a time of hope. Mr Havel gave me this tenor sax. He told me that under the Communists, Czechoslovakia had to make all the saxophones for the Warsaw Pact. But now, he said, we will have to compete, and I hope we are up to it.”
For more on Bill Clinton’s attitudes towards Václav Havel follow this link.