Most of them couldn’t find Czechoslovakia on a map...........................;^)
It’s TWO countries. Czech Republic or Czechia, and Slovak Republic, or Slovakia.
My aunt married a Czech scientist who was visiting Johns Hopkins University during the Prague Spring. She was working as a research assistant there. They went back to Prague & her first child was 3 months old when the Soviet tanks rolled in.
Prior to the invasion the US had been tracking the various Russian armies, then one day the all just disappeared - all communications ceased. It was days before the US learned that the Russian armies in question were now in Czechoslovakia mush to their surprise and chagrin.
How did that happen?
Oddly enough some weeks prior to the disappearance, the US Command Staff at Frankfurt underwent a rotation of officers rotating out of Nam.
The guys keeping track of the Russian were living the high life - they had overseas pay, hazardous duty pay, hardship pay etc. Some guys had just reupped for another 4 years. Some had purchased otherwise expensive sports cars and were racing on the tracks.
Others had just married a local gal. All of them lived off-base in very nice apartments or houses. None of them wore uniforms to work, many had beards (not permitted in those days), uniforms were worn as coveralls to protect their civilian attire underneath.
Don’t misunderstand here. These guys turned out a first class product be it Russian translations or Morse or Traffic Analysis or whatever.
One guy even wound the copper coils of the radio receivers (demux units) to by hand to break out the Russian PPM systems getting high level conversations from Russian generals and politicians in Moscow. All of this product was available instantly once transmitted, and if important enough on the President’s desk in 15 seconds after transmission.
Then the command came down from the new Command officers in charge who were determined to shape up these guys as they were soldiers first and needed to live, behave and act like soldiers. All non-regular pay was canceled ... the guys were really pissed by that order, then the next commands: all personnel will live in the barracks, all personnel will be subject to daily inspections.
Husbands and wives were separated (wives were not allowed to be on those bases); guys had huge debts they could not repay; and worse some were stuck for four more years ...
Suddenly their radios were silent. Not a Russian peep to be heard. Just rock and roll. Furious sargents re-tuned the radios back to the correct frequencies turned the tape recorders on, but as soon as the sargent or LT left to fix another pos, the radio went back all on its own, you understand, to rock and roll.
All the recorded traffic is given various classifications designating its type - air traffic being the lowest at the time. This traffic was usually the last bit given any attention and then only in passing.
Some guys actually taped the whole of the Russian move, then marked it Air. Days passed and some day beggar decided to clean out the backlog of Air, and the rest is history.
Could be why Czechoslovakia is one of the staunchest NATO Allies. An invasion or two really helps to clarify things.