[August 20, 2018] Today, the history channel and many other media outlets will cover what they call the Soviet Union’s intervention in Czechoslovakia; 60 years ago on this date August 20, 1968. For the rest of us, it was not a simple political intervention but a military invasion to crush a fledgling movement that struggled against the constraints of Communism.
Secretary General of the Czechoslovakia’s Communist Party Alexander Dubček stepped into the leadership position in January 1968. He immediately began to overhaul the political and economic system into what he called “Socialism with a human face.” Sound familiar? If you live in the United States, it should.
Dubček recognized that the Soviet Communist model had failed to provide sufficient autonomy to grow his country socially and economically. He introduced a number of reforms that provided for additional freedoms (relative to Communism) by allowing more free market efforts, less state control, the participation of non-Communist political parties, freedom in the arts, etc. This became known as the “Prague Spring.”
When the Soviet Union couldn’t convince him to back off these changes, more than 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops crossed into Czechoslovakia and headed to the capital city of Prague. Within a week, more than three-quarters of a million foreign troops occupied the country. Dubček was forced to resign.
Anti-Soviet riots broke out in Prague but they were crushed brutally. Thousands of Czechs fled the country. The invasion shocked the West and stymied a recent warming of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States.
Later, when Communism was overthrown in 1989, Dubček became the Chairman of the federal Czechoslovak parliament and awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.1 The end of the rule of the Communist Party and the formation of a democratic government led to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.2
For the many baby boomers like me, we remember this day clearly as a day that Communism again crushed a budding freedom movement and why we strongly distrust any ideology that attempts to control its citizens through force.
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- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Dubček
- This was known as the Velvet Divorce
All good comments here today about a subject all too quickly forgotten. History as a subject in academics has, unfortunately, declined in its professionalism and usefulness. Plus, most of us think it is just too boring to bother. That is why evil empires like Russia and China continue to dominate those around them. Their goal? Suck the resources out of them because their own citizens cannot produce enough while under the yoke of Communism. Thanks Gen. Satterfield for highlighting this today.
Thank you Nick for your cogent response and for making an excellent point. We should be concerned about the rise of Communism and its sister ideology Socialism for these are destructive forces that are poor substitutes for real government by the people.
In 1983, US President Ronald Reagan called the USSR an “evil empire.” He was laughed at. You know … he was right.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/reagan-refers-to-u-s-s-r-as-evil-empire-again
When good men fail to stand up to evil, the results are predictable. Oh, someone already said something like that.
I would think that most people from the US and other western nations don’t consider the invasion of an “unimportant” country to be very important. But that is a slippery slope argument that fails the test of time and moral behavior. Decision making at this level requires insight, vision, and character. Something here that Lyndon B. Johnson did not have. His indecision (actually a decision) will always haunt his legacy and as it should.
I remember the invasion as many others do. But what I also remember is the debate that the USA should not intervene in the “internal affairs” of another nation. This was code that the USA was too scared of starting WW3 over an “out of the way” nation that no one really cared about. This is how evil begins to spread and reach its tentacles around the world. Someone, a real leader, has to stand up to it.
This is interesting. ‘Nearly half of Russians ignorant of 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia – poll’
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/msn/nearly-half-of-russians-ignorant-of-1968-invasion-of-czechoslovakia-–-poll/ar-BBM7f01
Here is a good link that summarizes the invasion and why and the results.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/soviet-invasion-czechoslavkia
Thanks guys for saving me time by providing these links.
😉
For those who do not study and learn from history, are apt to repeat it.
Let’s be careful not to repeat the mistakes that President Johnson made. I don’t think Donald Trump would back down like Obama did to Syria ( a puny country). They crossed his “red line” and nothing happened. Go figure. Obama; all talk and no action. That is why Obama and Johnson are two peas in a pod. They are alike in many ways; mostly they thought they were great but their strategic mistakes cost a lot of lives.
Excellent points, Bryan.
You have considerable insight. Thank you Bryan for such cogent remarks.
Funny it is how people don’t understand the ramifications of this invasion. It showed the Soviet Union (Russia today) that invading a country to put down a freedom-loving people is okay. I blame US Pres. Johnson for not doing anything and thus allowing countries like the USSR to stomp all over Asia and Europe and … is rewarded for it.
And people say the US is evil. Wow. How blind so many people are. They allow themselves to be caught up in lies and deceit and yet cannot see what is in front of them.
Amazing. How people forget.
A long time ago but something in our history that should never be forgotten. Unfortunately, most in the West are so self-centered that history is “old and yucky” and thus not deserving of our attention.
I remember it clearly too. I also remember being surprised the USA did nothing and stood by while good people were killed and imprisoned. It was a sad time for freedom and a big win for Communism.
Many people across the world grossly underestimate the damage and destruction caused by Communism. They like the security of it, I guess. However, Communism in the 20th century accounts for over 100 million deaths and many more destroyed families and countries. I say that is enough to reject it as an ideology or savior. This also goes for its sister ideology of Socialism.
Good points again, Max. People turn their heads to the underlying hatred that Communism generates. It’s based on hate, greed, and envy. No wonder it wrecks so many millions of lives today.
More excellent points, Max. Thank you.
Yes, good insight.
🙂
So true.