[hah-vel] 
| Vá⋅clav [vahts-lahf] , born 1936, Czech writer and political leader: president of Czechoslovakia 1989–92; president of the Czech Republic 1993–2003. |
| Ha·vel (hä'vəl) Czech writer and politician. A widely known playwright whose works include The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (1967) and The Garden Party (1969), Havel became a civil rights leader after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968). He was elected president of Czechoslovakia in 1990 after the collapse of the Communist government, but resigned in 1992. He served as president of the newly formed Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. |
vɛl