Word: czechoslovakia
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...Warsaw Pact has the bizarre distinction of being the only alliance in history that has occupied or invaded not enemy territory but that of its own member states: East Germany '53, Hungary '56, Czechoslovakia '68. The imposition of martial law in Poland in 1981 was nothing less than a Soviet- backed military coup d'etat within the Communist Party...
...just as the specter of an East-West conflict has receded, East-East police actions may also grow harder to justify, and someday perhaps harder to execute. Hungary, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria have all followed Gorbachev's lead by announcing large cuts in defense spending. The gradual demilitarization of those societies could fuel economic reform by freeing resources for civilian industry...
Vaclav Havel has been fighting for freedom in Czechoslovakia since the day Warsaw Pact forces crushed the reform movement that flowered in the spring of 1968. So it was hardly surprising that he was arrested on Jan. 16, along with eight other activists, while trying to lay flowers in Prague's Wenceslas Square. That was where student Jan Palach set himself ablaze two decades earlier to protest the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia...
...essays The Power of the Powerless; and Letters to Olga, a collection of missives that he wrote to his wife while in prison. Havel's work reflects the struggle of citizens in a totalitarian state. Although he is both produced and published abroad, his work has been banned in Czechoslovakia since 1969 and must circulate underground...
...Havel was offered the chance to emigrate to the U.S. to avoid a conviction for subversive activities. He refused, saying, "The solution of this human situation does not lie in leaving it. Fourteen million people can't just go and leave Czechoslovakia empty." That decision won Havel the respect and admiration of many Czechs. Says Charter 77 activist Martin Palou: "Havel is a symbol of hope for the future, a man who can articulate many people's feelings...