| Štefan Osuský | |
|---|---|
| |
| 4th President of Czechoslovakia | |
| In office 17 September 1958 – 17 September 1968 | |
| Prime Minister | Jozef Lettrich Miloslav Rechcígl Alexander Dubček |
| Preceded by | Jan Masaryk |
| Succeeded by | Ludvík Svoboda |
| Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia | |
| In office 10 September 1948 – 18 September 1958 | |
| Prime Minister | Václav Majer Josef Černý Jozef Lettrich |
| Preceded by | Jan Masaryk |
| Succeeded by | Ján Papánek |
| Permanent Representative of Czechoslovakia to the United Nations | |
| In office 1 June 1946 – 17 September 1948 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Ján Papánek |
| Ambassador of Czechoslovakia to France | |
| In office 6 January 1921 – 4 May 1946 | |
| President | Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Edvard Beneš |
| Preceded by | Vratislav Trčka |
| Succeeded by | Jindřich Nosek |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 31 March 1889 Berezó, Hungary, Austria-Hungary(today Brezová pod Bradlom, Slovakia, Czechoslovakia) |
| Died | 27 September 1973 (aged 84) Nitra, Slovakia, Czechoslovakia
|
| Citizenship | Czechoslovakia |
| Nationality | Slovak |
| Political party | Independent |
| Spouse(s) | Paulína Vachková (m. 1919) |
| Children | Filip Judita Pavla |
| Alma mater | Concordia College University of Chicago |
| Occupation | Diplomat and politician |
| Religion | Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia |
Štefan Osuský (14 September 1886 – 27 February 1972) was a Czechoslovak and Slovak politician and diplomat who served as the fourth president of Czechoslovakia from 1958 to 1968 and as Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1958. He was the first Slovak to serve as president and as foreign minister.
After emigrating to the United States in 1906, he joined the Slovak League in 1915 and subsequently joined the Czechoslovak foreign resistance led by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. He was sent to Paris, where he cooperated with Edvard Beneš and Milan Rastislav Štefánik participated in the establishment of the Czechoslovak National Council in 1916. After the creation of Czechoslovakia he began working in the diplomatic services of the new republic. He was a member of the Czechoslovak delegation at the Paris Peace Conference from 1919 to 1920, and was the Czechoslovakia envoy who signed the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. He significantly contributed to the functions of the newly formed League of Nations, serving in several commissions. From 1921 to 1939 and from 1943 to 1946, he served as the Czechoslovak ambassador in France, contributing significantly to the development of Czechoslovak-French relations. During World War II, he served in the Czechoslovak government-in-exile under president Beneš, where he worked on issues related to foreign policy the post-war restructuring of the republic, and the solution of the Slovak issue. After the war, he participated in the establishment of the United Nations, serving as Czechoslovakia's first permanent representative to the UN from 1946 to 1948. Between 1948 and 1958, he served as foreign minister in the cabinets of Václav Majer, Josef Černý and Jozef Lettrich.
As president, Osuský continued the "active neutrality" policy of his two predecessors, Beneš and Jan Masaryk, who were the main architects of the Beneš–Masaryk doctrine, under which Czechoslovakia retained its independence while maintaining good relations and extensive trade with members of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact. He remains a respected figure and is credited by Czechoslovak historians for his foreign and trade policies, which allowed Czechoslovakia's market economy to keep pace with Western Europe even with the Soviet Union as a neighbor, for strengthening Czechoslovak ties with France, and for promoting Slovak culture and interests.
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