Word: czechoslovaks
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...scant comfort to one country that is perilously caught both geographically and ideologically between the two blocs. It is Yugoslavia, whose President, Marshal Josip Broz Tito, not only was the first Eastern European ruler to achieve his independence from the Soviet overlordship but also served as an inspiration to Czechoslovak Party First Secretary Alexander Dubcek in his ill-starred search to find a measure of freedom within Communism. The recent Soviet press campaign against Tito ("lover of counter-revolution") and his country is almost as bitter as the one against West Germany. At a meeting last summer on his resort...
...preparing for the worst. Tito, fearing a Soviet-inspired attempt on his life, has taken special security precautions. Throughout the country, bomb shelters are being built. As an added touch of realism, Yugoslav airplanes drop smoke bombs on some cities during air-raid drills. Emulating the tactics of the Czechoslovak broadcasters, Yugoslav radio stations are setting up alternative facilities outside the cities so that they can keep the people informed in the event that the urban areas fall to invaders. The 300,000-man Yugoslav army, which is equipped with a mixture of U.S. and Soviet weaponry, is on full...
Most have plans to work abroad for a while, but none will renounce Czechoslovak citizenship. Says Jan Kadar, who co-directed The Shop on Main Street: "We have a solidarity with our government and our people. It was a miracle. Never was a people so united on so high an ethical level...
Among those who have left for good, the young often speak in total disillusionment. "O.K., it's clear. We see how things are," says a 26-year-old Czechoslovak mathematician. "We won't ever go back. The Russians have strangled us." For older people, Dubcek's adventure provided a fresh breath of freedom that was too precious to give up. "You live 20 years in fear of your life, and then it gets better," observes a 50-year-old medical technician who fled to Paris. "You can never go back to what life was like before." Intellectuals...
Right Free Country. For countries that need immigrants, the swarms of Czechoslovak professionals and skilled technicians at loose ends provided a field day. Australian recruiters happily chartered three jetliners to bring hundreds of refugees to Sydney, including doctors, engineers, dentists, university professors, graphic designers and High Diving Champion Stefan Hanny. "These people could make an immeasurable contribution to Australia's progress if they can be allowed to practice their professions," said Immigration Minister Billy Snedden. Canada frantically increased its three-man immigration department in Vienna to 20, has already granted resident visas to almost 2,000 persons-including Marcella...