Libuse (Lela) Cloud and "Project Sliver Lining": The Iron Curtain could not stop Love ©

Libuse Hrdonkova was born on September 14, 1922, in Stod, Czechoslovakia. She met Leonard Cloud, an American soldier in a small town near Pilzen, following the end of World War Two, when he was stationed there. He then returned to the United States only to return to Czechoslovakia in 1949, when they married at the 13th century Cathedral in Pilzen on November 26th.

His visa expired, and he was forced to leave Czechoslovakia without her in January 1950. She tried six times to get a passport, but each application was refused. She was later quoted as saying; “We often were despondent over the refusals, but the hope that I would get across persisted.”

Freedom Tank

She was also quoted as saying she had two previously unsuccessful attempts to escape by foot. The full story of how she and others broke through the Iron Curtain in a home-made "Tank" built by Vaclav Uhlik was the subject of a previous blog post and can be read here. 

As an "escapee", she described at a news conference (broadcast by Radio Free Europe and Voice of America) her joy as the “tank” crossed the Iron Curtain on July 24, 1953: "I saw the barbed wires approaching and all at once we slipped down and went under the tracks. It was beautiful. We made it. Beautiful like a dream. Too beautiful to be true."  She is also quoted as saying, “I knew the bad life was behind me. I was free. I was no longer a slave. I was a human being again.” She added, “I want to get to the United States as fast as possible for a reunion with my husband.” 

A Paramount Pictures newsreel shown in movie theaters throughout the United States shows the tank in motion and the escapees, including Libuse Cloud next to the tank and also at the news conference:

She departed Germany in September 1953 to be re-united with her husband in Iowa. She was reported as saying, “I still can’t believe it’s real … I’ve often dreamed of this:” She flew from Germany, to New York but bad weather delayed her arrival in New York and she had to overnight there on Thursday, September 17, 1953. Dr. Jan Papanek, founder and president of the American Fund for Czechoslovakian Refugees (AFCR) met her at New York's Idlewild Airport. He was accompanied by Roger Williams of the U.S. State Department, who would also fly to Iowa with her. 

She gave a television interview and made a recording for the Voice of America, to be broadcast to Czechoslovakia. Libuse Cloud also went to the United Nations building and met the U.S. delegate Henry Cabot Lodge.

In Chicago

She then flew to Chicago the next day, where she was photographed at the airport driving a small cart and explaining to the airline's “First Officer Guy Douglas” how she escaped from Czechoslovakia. 

Libuse then flew on to Sioux City, Iowa for the reunion with Leonard Cloud.

Her arrival in Iowa on Friday, September 18, 1953, was a “red carpet” affair, named “Project Silver Lining,“ with welcoming speeches and a welcoming telegram from the Governor, a marching band, motorcade and parade through Sioux City, Iowa. One newspaper article began with, “A Silver Lining for the Clouds: Courageous Czech to Arrive in Iowa.” Another read, “Czech War Bride arrives in Iowa.” She reportedly ran down the stairs from the plane into her husband’s arms.”  She later said, “I am so happy to be in a free country. It’s wonderful”

The Sioux City Junior Chamber of Commerce sponsored her flight and festivities. Iowa Governor William S. Beardsley” sent her a telegram, which read: “All Iowa is happy to welcome you to our state.”

For years, she spoke at various civic functions throughout the United States about the virtues of freedom. For example, at the September meeting of the Women's Federated Club in Lake View, Iowa, she gave a talk on "Escape to Freedom." 

In November 1953, she explained to an enraptured audience in Hawarden, Iowa, that there were two previous attempts to escape: the first one failed when the height of the Iron Curtain "fence" was increased; the second failed because the tank engine proved not powerful enough. The local newspaper reported that it was "one of the most interesting and unusual programs held in this community for some time..."  

At a “kickoff” banquet for the Crusade for Freedom in Des Moines, Iowa, in January 1954, Libuse Cloud said that her mother and family did not know of her escape plans and only “learned immediately of her escape over Radio Free Europe…I was able to send greetings to my parents.”  She told her parents that she had to leave home to help Mrs. Ulrich, who was ill.  She added, “Radio Free Europe seems like a voice from heaven … is giving our people hope and courage at a time, when life is very hard and difficult for them.”

In August 1969, she was quoted in the Des Moines Register on the theme of "moment of heroism" as saying, "If we had been caught we would have been happy to get only prison because we expected to be put to death. It's so good to breathe the air of freedom."

She became a U.S. citizen in 1957 and eventually gave birth to three children: Dennis, Leola, and Stuart.

        

Leonard Cloud died in 1983, and was buried on his 60th birthday. Libuse (Lela) Cloud died on December 1, 2012; she was 90 years old.