News

    Please join us to commemorate the historic day when Lithuania began its path to its current prosperity.  Our program will include remarks and memories from the US ambassadors and other senior diplomats who served in Vilnius from 1991 to 2011, as well as an exhibition of the US media reports on the events back in 1991. Thursday, January 10, 2013 5:00 - 7:00 pm Location: The German Marshall Fund of the United States 1744 R Street, NW Washington, DC 20009 Closest Metro: Dupont Circle (North) To RSVP to this event, please contact: Kelsey Guyette FPIntern@gmfus.org

 
Speakers:
Darryl Johnson
Former Ambassador of the United States to Lithuania, 1992-1994

Thomas Kelly
Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States to Lithuania, 2004-2007

John Cloud
Former Ambassador of the United States to Lithuania, 2006-2009

Anne Derse
Ambassador of the United States to Lithuania, 2009-2012

Chair:
Ivan Vejvoda
Vice President for Programs, GMF

On March 11, 1990, Lithuania became the first republic to declare independence after Soviet occupation. After an economic blockade proved unsuccessful in curbing the Lithuanian drive to independence, Soviet troops seized key buildings throughout Vilnius in the early hours of January 13, 1991. Soviet tanks surrounded the city’s television tower, and troops began to fire live rounds into the growing crowd of protestors.  Rather than dispersing, Lithuanians from across the country poured into the capital city, ready to defend the country’s fragile independence.

Faced with peaceful but determined resistance, the Soviet troops were defeated.  The Lithuanians’ success in defending their independence on January 13, 1991, proved an important further step in the democratization of Central and Eastern Europe.

Now, after more than two decades of independence and progress, Lithuania will be first Baltic State to take the Presidency of European Union in the fall of 2013.