Edvard Beneš

Beneš served as Czechoslovakia's first foreign affairs minister from 1918 to 1935, briefly as prime minister from 1921 to 1922, and built a reputation as a skilled diplomat before ascending to the presidency in 1935. Three years later the Munich Agreement forced him to watch the German occupation unfold, and he resigned, taking his government to exile in the United Kingdom. He returned in 1945 and reclaimed the office, but the 1948 Communist coup ended the experiment for good. He resigned again and died that September, the state he helped create now behind the curtain.