Word: czechoslovaks
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...have listened with increasing distress over the past several months to the pollyannish placidity of the pronouncements by our government leaders and members of the "intellectual" establishment to the effect that the nature of Communism has changed and mellowed, that the Soviets wouldn't dare interfere in the Czechoslovak experiment with freedom...
Despite the relative calm of both the Administration and the public, Senator Eugene McCarthy insisted that the Government had overreacted. He carped at Johnson's decision to call a late-night meeting of his National Security Council to review the Czechoslovak situ ation. Arguing that the invasion did not amount to a "major world crisis," the Senator said that in Johnson's place, he would have "listened to the news and checked it out with one or two people to see whether it was accurate. And then I would have said, 'Let's keep informed, and we'll meet...
...next five minutes, Dobrynin read from two pages of handwritten notes. What he said paralleled the message released later that night by Moscow: the occupation was in response to a Czechoslovak invitation; Czechoslovakia's security had been threatened from within and without; the entire affair was strictly internal Communist business...
...perplexing thing after another. During the first eight months of 1968, events have moved at the pace of an avant-garde movie edited by a mad cutter. The alarms, the assassinations, the political reversals and the extremist cries have been so overwhelming that even last week's Czechoslovak tragedy may seem like only one more episode by Christmas. The common reaction is "What a year!", followed quickly by "What next?" Was there ever a year that could match this one for continued shocks, for a sense that "things fall apart, the center cannot hold...
Friendship Pact. After a press conference later that morning, Ulbricht took off for home. Once he was aloft, the crowd of Czechoslovaks that had dutifully gathered at the airport to wave the East German boss on his way erupted into a demonstration of joy-and relief. They mobbed Dubcek, Premier Oldrich Cernik and Presidium Member Josef Smrkovsky. The Czechoslovak leaders responded by signing autographs, slapping backs and bussing the pretty girls. At one point, Dubcek grabbed Smrkovsky and turned his face to the crowd so that the people could see the lipstick smears...