CZECH REPUBLIC: Daniel McLaughlin visits Jince, where the chill of a renewed cold war is already being felt
As the Kremlin accuses Washington of sparking another arms race and America warns of the danger of a second Cold War, few places feel the chill more keenly than Jince.
This Czech village huddles beside a former Soviet base that now awaits a new arrival - a US radar installation that the Pentagon claims will detect missiles launched by "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea but which Moscow suspects will be a dangerous spy on its doorstep.
After several years of secret talks, Washington has finally declared its intention to build the installation at this village just 32km (20 miles) west of Prague and link it to a planned silo in Poland that would house missiles capable of destroying enemy rockets in mid-flight, above the earth's atmosphere.
The Pentagon calls the system a shield to defend America and its allies from trigger-happy adversaries with weapons of mass destruction. But most Czechs and Poles now find themselves in the unusual position of agreeing with their old enemy, Moscow, that the project is dangerous folly.
"I get letters and e-mails every day from across the country, and all of them are against the base," says Josef Hala, the mayor of Jince, as he studies a map showing the likely location of the radar installation.
"We remember how glad we were when the Soviet military finally left," he says. "Now we will again face the same problems and risk our own skins for someone else - no one believes this will help our own defence."
Surveys in the Czech Republic and Poland show strong opposition to the plan, but centre-right, pro-US leaders in Prague and Warsaw have ruled out a referendum on the issue, and people in both countries suspect final approval is a formality.
Protests in Jince and Prague have attracted hundreds of people who fear the powerful installation will harm the environment and the health of local people and become a prime target for terror attack or a first strike in a nuclear war.
"These kinds of facilities are usually located in remote places - but this radar will be right in the heart of Europe, near Prague," says Mr Hala.
"People here feel they are the last to know what will happen to them - our questions are not fully answered and the government refuses to hold a referendum. That makes us scared and suspicious."
At a briefing in Prague last month, government officials told Mr Hala and other local leaders what to expect.
The base should start being built in 2009 and enter full operation in 2011.
The so-called X-Band Radar would be operated by 30 to 60 US personnel and sit at the heart of a high-security compound and a wide no-fly zone.
The ultra-sensitive "golf ball" antenna has a potential range of 6,700km - allowing it, to the Kremlin's fury, to peer deep into the Russian Federation.
President Vladimir Putin has said the missile defence system seems intended to reduce Russia's nuclear deterrent, and would spark "an inevitable arms race", a remark that prompted the US defence secretary to warn him that "one cold war was quite enough".
The Pentagon insists that 10 interceptor rockets stationed in Poland could not counter the vast nuclear arsenal that the Kremlin still controls, but Moscow says it is pressing ahead with the development of new missiles capable of evading any defence system.
The head of Russia's rocket forces also said his weapons could target the Polish and Czech bases, while Russia's most senior general warned that Moscow might scrap a 20-year-old treaty banning medium-range ballistic missiles if Washington took the "inexplicable" decision to deploy its high-tech hardware in central Europe. On the same day, however, Poland's prime minister for the first time publicly stated his support for hosting a US rocket base.
Britain's announcement last week that it wanted to be party to the missile defence talks surprised the Czech and Polish governments, both of which want to strengthen ties with America but carry political baggage that worries Washington.
In the Czech parliament, left- and right-wing parties hold 100 seats each, making the government unstable, while in Poland the ruling Kaczynski twins are unpredictable and reportedly want expensive US weaponry in return for permission to build the missile silo.
Analysts say Britain's interest in the missile base might be a ploy to help America put pressure on Warsaw; or it could represent a genuine offer from a trusted ally that ballistics experts say is better positioned than Poland to hit missiles fired from North Korea or Iran. Furthermore, a radar station in northern England is already plugged into the US early warning system and Russia would prefer to see the system deployed in relatively distant Britain..
But Petr Bendl, governor of the region around Jince and a member of the ruling Civic Democrats, says the Czech government is committed to hosting the base.
"We cannot let big countries make all the security efforts while we reap the benefits," he says. "We should take responsibility too - and this radar base will strengthen our relationship with America."
Mr Bendl says the previous centre-left government agreed in principle in 2002 to host the US base but now campaigns against it from the opposition benches. Noting that Mr Hala and several like-minded mayors are communists, he also blames ingrained anti-Americanism for some politicians' antipathy towards the project.
But surveys suggest that most Poles and Czechs oppose deployment. "Lots of people have a problem with the radar," says young mother Petra Belsanova in Jince. "We worry about the damage it could do to our health and to the environment. And then, of course, who knows who might attack it?"