1968 CZECH INVASION

How it went down…

WARSAW PACT

A military treaty which bound its signatories to come to the aid of each other should any one of them be the victim of foreign aggression (NATO?)

Jamie – what countries were in the Warsaw Pact?

Although it was supposed to be based on equality it became a powerful political tool for the soviet union to harness the powers of a combined military

REJECTION ( INSERT LAME P ICTURE)

Czechoslovakia rejected the call for more military integration within the Pact and sought a great role in developing strategy for non members.

Czech with a history of Democracy prior to WW2

PRAGUE SPRING

Leaders put forward plans to democratize the armed forces

Jack – democratize means?

Various documents stated that Czech should base its defence strategy on its own geopolitical interests and that the threat from the west was overstated.

Alexander Dubcek – reassured S.U that Czech would stick with the Pact – however the damage had been done

LEONID BREZHNEV

Feared; liberalization, ending of censorship, defection, loss of Czech as an industrial base, spread to Poland and East Germany, the presence of NATO.

Czech never intended to leave the Pact but S.U could not be certain of their actions.

Bratislava Conference – Pact signed unshakeable fidelity to Marx/Leninist, declaring a struggle against bourgeois ideology

Soviet Union expressed its intention to intervene if bourgeois system established

INVASION

August 20, 1968 – invasion between 150-500,000 troops in blitzkrieg fashion

108 killed

Meticulously organised – airport seizure

No resistance – “a resolute protest with the requirement that the illegal occupation of Czech be stopped without delay and all armed troops be withdrawn”

BAD BOYS

Warsaw countries had entered without the Czech consent, denying the soviet claim that they had been invited to preserve socialism

Objections were demonstrated through mass gatherings and passive resistance.

Mitch – where was NATO?

LBJ(not LeBron) was involved in Vietnam and was trying to pursue an arms control treaty with the Soviets

EFFECTS

Czech military prisoners in own barracks which lead to suspicions among troops and neighbouring countries about the ability of Czech forces

Czech left to wonder about their own “allies”

October 16 – partial withdrawal, sizeable soviet influence remains as “temporary stationing”.

The S.U successfully stopped the liberalization reforms and strengthened the CPCz

COLD WAR CONTEXT

In terms of the CW, what effect do you think the invasion had on perceptions of the S.U, the Warsaw pact, and relations with western countries?