Word: czechoslovaks
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Whether the Czechoslovak people would accept it remained to be seen. Having tasted the heady air of freedom the past eight months and in their own way tested their mettle against Soviet tanks last week, they might well insist on a greater say in their own destiny in the future. Passive resistance is an art that, once mastered, can be applied in more than one situation...
...carefully constructed since World War II. Freedom of speech and of the press, the right of free assembly, criticism both from within the party and political clubs outside it-all threatened to un dermine and eventually destroy Eastern European Communism. Poland, Hungary, East Germany were all susceptible to the Czechoslovak ex ample and in danger of eventually going their own ways...
...sense, Dubcek's growing unruliness-and the invasion of his country to bring it back in line-was a near-domestic issue for Moscow, not an international one. This was all the truer because, inside Russia, the youth and intellectuals-among others-seemed electrified by the spectacle of Czechoslovak reform...
Western experts have assembled four theories to explain why Russia chose the violent tactic now. One possibility is that the Soviets never considered seriously any other solution to the Czechoslovak problem. The sweet reasonableness at Cierna was all a feint. They could also have come to Cierna in the hope of finding-and aiding-a rebellious rump group in Dubcek's party leadership, and failed. Or they might have decided, after watching post-Cierna Czechoslovakia, that Dubcek simply could not or did not want to deliver on their demands of holding down his reforms. Finally, the invasion could have...
...hope of regaining sway over Czechoslovakia nonforcibly, if not amicably. It is quite likely that they expected to find a clique of dissidents in Dubcek's entourage through whom they could work for subversion. Dubcek. however, was able to draw the line so clearly between the right of Czechoslovaks to run their own na tional affairs and Russia's in ternational claims as bloc lead er that just before the conference opened he won a unanimous vote of committee confidence. To the Russians' chagrin, the entire Czechoslovak delegation came to Cierna determined to render unto Moscow only...