Posted on 08/21/2008 3:14:25 PM PDT by Grzegorz 246
This August 21st marks 40 years since the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops, an invasion meticulously planned by the Soviet Union to crush the period of economic and political reforms known as the Prague Spring. Within hours of late August 20th and early August 21st some 2,000 tanks as well as an estimated 200,000 troops had poured in. It was the beginning of the occupation which changed the course of Czechoslovak history.
Marta Hubscherová – a former radio reporter - witnessed the arrival of the first tanks in northern Bohemia; in an interview for Radio Prague in 2004 she recalled the initial shock:
“My first information was not from the radio but from the fact that a Russian tank went along our road just in front of our house just as far away as the curtains are here! He had a problem getting up over a hill by our house, and others would pass him by, so he took a piece of our fence along with him. So, this was my introduction to what was happening here.”
The late American journalist Alan Levy – who spent many years in the Czech capital – described the early hours of August 21st as the beginning of the end: the end of Alexander Dubček’s reforms, of socialism with a human face, and of the relative freedoms to which ordinary Czechs and Slovaks in short time had grown accustomed. An excerpt from an interview with the late author from 2003:
(Excerpt) Read more at radio.cz ...
Evil seems to be ingrained in the Russians/Soviets. If we had followed Patton’s advice we wouldn’t be dealing with many of the problems we face in the world as Russia/Soviets not only cause trouble themselves but are involved in proxy wars. China is the same way. We need to be forceful with them and not allow this on their terms. We are already in the midst of WW3.
I’m not so sure. Paranoia, resentment and delusions of grandeur seem part of the Russian psyche. It doesn’t matter if it’s under the Tsars, the Communists or now under a putative democratic regime. Russia is Russia and Russians are Russians.
I damn sure wouldn’t have wanted the headache of trying to occupy Russia even if we had won — which was by no means a certainty.
Russia/the Soviets were pre-nuclear at that point. We have more of a mess now and they have been at the heart of our problems in emboldening/empowering our enemies and the world’s tyrants and their terrorist proxys. Look at the terrorists with their Soviet/Russian weaponry. Not to mention China. MacArthur was right on that one as well. Now it is out of hand and will be even bloodier and messier. That was a major turning point in history IMHO.
Pure coincidence with the dates... ?
I was a teenager travelling by train from Warsaw to the Hook of Holland (through Berlin) while this was going on.
While I had been in Poland, my passport got damaged by a leaking bottle of after shave which caused the ink to run obliterating my personal details and almost totally washing away my Polish Visa.
At Berlin Ostbahnoff where formalities between East and West Germany were carried out, the East Germans came close to pulling me off the train to detain me, which would have left the 14 year old travelling with me alone on the train. Fortunately they let us go.
We were totally unaware that all the borders between East and Western Europe were being closed up at the time which was probably a good thing.
We had seen a lot of military activity while in Poland, but assumed it to be normal having no prior experience of Communist Europe. It wasn’t until afterwards we realized we had observed the Russian Army traversing Poland to crush Dubcek
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