Eduard Benes was educated at the Universities of Prague, Dijon and Paris. He earned a PhD in Sociology. During World War I, Benes was active in achieving independence for Czechoslovakia. In 1918, he became his country's first foreign minister. He succeeded Masaryk as President in 1935. Benes was forced to accept the "Munich Pact" by Great Britain and France. After World War II, he tried to maintain democracy in Czechoslovakia, but Communist pressure forced him to resign. Bibliography: Benes, Eduard. Democracy Today and Tomorrow. London: Macmillan, 1939. Benes, Edvard, 1884-1948. Edvard Benes in His Own Words: Threescore Years Of A Statesman, Builder and Philosopher. New York : Czech-American National Alliance, Eastern Division, 1944. Benes, Eduard. International security. Arthur Feiler, Rushton Coulborn; Walter H.C. Laves. Chicago, Ill. : University of Chicago Press, 1939. Taborsky, Edward. President Edvard Benes : Between East and West, 1938-1948. Hoover Pr 1981.