Who was the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia for the government in exile during World War II and later in the post-war government, who advocated accepting Marshall Plan funds and died in a suspicious fall in 1948?

• A. Jan Masaryk
• B. Vyacheslav Molotov
• C. Golda Meir
• D. Mohammad Mosaddegh

Answer: (A)

This is about a Czech diplomat who served as Foreign Minister in exile during World War II and again in the postwar government, who urged that Czechoslovakia accept Marshall Plan funds and who died in a suspicious fall in 1948. That person is Jan Masaryk, the son of Czechoslovakia’s founder Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. He led the country’s foreign affairs in exile in London and, after liberation, continued as Foreign Minister in the Prague government, backing Western aid to rebuild the economy. Supporting the Marshall Plan was a move to secure recovery, foster integration with Western Europe, and resist creeping Soviet influence, which put him at odds with hardliners then gaining power at home. His death in March 1948, falling from the Foreign Ministry window in Prague, is enveloped in mystery and widely seen as tied to the violent political turmoil of the Communist takeover, though exact circumstances remain debated. The other individuals listed were not Czech diplomats associated with this history: one was a Soviet leader, another an Israeli leader, and another an Iranian prime minister, so they do not fit this combination of role, policy, and fate.