languages—in Czechoslovakian, via an excellent interpreter, George Sykora, who came with Mr. Ward from the embassy; in Dr. Dufek's fractured English (not as good as his written English, on which he must have had help), and in school-girl Russian between me and Daniela—so I think we'll be okay. Actually, Daniela is better at English than her father.

I'm in an ancient, huge hotel in a huge, ancient room with gorgeous paneling and leaky plumbing. At 3:00 a.m., a gesticulating house detective unceremoniously unlocked my door and walked in—and then apologized. He said a light was on outside in the hall over my door, which indicated I wanted help. He said I must have turned it on accidentally when I had switched off my light and gone to sleep three hours before. Oh, well— one gets accustomed to the unexpected.

We chatted in the Dufeks' room in this hotel for about an hour after arriving here at 10:00 p.m., to get the history of his illness and to try to figure out if the operation is necessary. It is.

Prague, July 6, 1962
Yesterday, George Sykora, along with Mrs. Jarmila Dufkova and Daniela, met me in the lobby and we all drove over to the hospital together. There, after quite a wait, the external pacemaker from Brno arrived by car. This was a back-up device for emergency use in case Dr. Dufek's heart stopped beating after he was anesthetized but before we could get his chest opened and his heart exposed. After a lot of backing and filling, including being shown through a fabulous experimental surgical suite filled with tiled cages for animals, we had lunch in one of the sub-chief's offices while we listened to taped jazz from Radio Luxembourg on his hi-fi set in the office. I think he was trying to impress me.

Finally, we were invited to check around in the operating room we were to use. The oscilloscope didn't function too well and the external pacemaker not at all, but we began operating in spite of these deficiencies at 3:00 p.m. to a packed gallery. Fortunately, the anesthesiologist was a well-trained man who had lived in England for seven years. Both his English and his skills were perfect, and he did a good job. The operation went slowly but smoothly. Since I knew I could not be around during Dr. Dufek's postoperative period, I was damned careful about

controlling every single bleeding point. Dr. Dufek's heart is now beating away at 60 beats per minute instead of 30. We got him safely back to the recovery room. This a.m. I was up and out to see Dr. Dufek—all rosy. A quick tour of the cardiovascular unit—run by a busy, active, interesting bunch of guys. Then a short visit to the embassy—met Mr. Wales, the American ambassador— congratulations all around. I'm here one more day to be sure Dr. Dufek is okay and then on my way home!

The next document in the file is a letter a month later from Jim Ward, the American vice consul who had been so helpful:

Prague, August 5, 1962
My dear Doctor Takaro: I wish to inform you that George Sykora and I went to see Dr. Dufek on Sunday July 22 and again
on July 29 and found him in excellent health. We both spent a delightful afternoon with him and his family each time, and you just can't imagine how happy they all are. Dr. Dufek was very grateful for the valuable information you sent him from the plane—he is going to write you as soon as he finds a good dictionary. His daughter, Dada, who has definitely become "addicted" to you, will also write. The whole family is going to some spa in Bohemia and will be back in September.

A report on your operation, picked up
from the UPI, appeared in the daily

"A report on [the] operation, picked up from the UPI, appeared in the daily bulletin published by the press section of the embassy," wrote the U.S. vice consul. "Newsweek wants to publish a short story on the whole thing."

bulletin published by the press section of the embassy at the end of July. Today—August 5—a correspondent from Newsweek called up from Vienna and asked for Dr. Dufek's address and home phone number. Evidently, Newsweek wants to publish a short story on the whole thing in the medical column.

I can't tell you more about Dr. Dufek medically except that he looks fine, his pulse is 62 per minute, and he has gone swimming and keeps kidding his wife that he'll have to have another pacemaker inserted with electrodes leading in the opposite direction in his body—just to keep him "going."