Word: czechoslovaks
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...even more was the TV exposure he gained last May as a minor presidential candidate. Though he won only 3.6% of the vote and was eliminated in the first round, Rocard came across as an incisive, articulate and iconoclastic politician. He labeled the Communists "retrograde bureaucrats," denounced the Czechoslovak invasion, demanded that France withdraw from NATO and called for total worker control of private business. In his campaign for the Assembly, Rocard told audiences that France must discard its "model of American capitalism." He also criticized the Gaullist regime for failing to provide adequate schools and transport for satellite communities...
From the Soviet viewpoint, the crackdown means that Czechoslovakia is finally getting "normalized." Most tellingly, the government announced that Husak and President Ludvik Svoboda will pay a state visit to Moscow this week, with all the trappings. Ever since Dubcek began his effort to "humanize" Communism, every visit by Czechoslovak officials has been designated merely as a "working" trip. Now having re-established Czechoslovakia as safe Communist territory, the Soviets might even be ready to authorize a reduction of their 85,000-man occupying force...
...seems unlikely that the collective leadership of Brezhnev and Kosygin would agree to any far-reaching accommodation with West Germany. One reason the Soviets moved against Czechoslovakia was that Brandt had opened negotiations in Prague that might have led to diplomatic relations and German investments in Czechoslovak industry. Soviet diplomats subsequently warned Brandt's aides that they do not want the Germans poking around in Eastern Europe. Still, Brandt is not likely to give up easily. For years the Soviets have unfairly castigated West Germany as a haven of unrepentant Nazis. It is a charge Brandt and the West Germany...
...today's Prague, practically no one works more than three hours a day. Once the most industrious and prosperous of Eastern Europeans, the Czechoslovaks are passively resisting Soviet occupation by the only means left to them: loafing. They wander aimlessly in the streets and fill the pubs from early morning until closing time. Construction sites are deserted. Office workers arrive late and often do not return after lunch. Says a factory foreman: "If you saw our plant at peak production hours, you would think we were on strike." "There is no respect for superiors, because they do nothing either...
Czechoslovakia is running into balance of payments difficulties and has had to cut back drastically on its imports of production equipment. The country's primary exports, including timber and Prague ham, are in short supply. Another reason for the export decline is the increasing shoddiness of Czechoslovak goods. A survey of fac tory managers showed that two-thirds of them give priority to the home market because, the report said, "the people are not selective." The men in charge of the economy vigorously protest the refusal of the U.S. to grant Czechoslovakia most-favored-nation tariff treatment. By stimulating...