20 agos 1968 anni - Invasion of Czechoslovakia

Descrizione:

A Warsaw Pact army invaded Czechoslovakia - mostly made up of the red army (5 to 1) but Romania and Albania abstained and due to the previous occupation, East German troops didn't take part.
Dubcek ordered no resistance from the army and civilians - knowing that they'd be slaughtered - and small pockets of resistance were dealt with brutally. 137 were killed and many more were injured.
The official line was that they were responding to a request from the communist party to restore order but in a final act of defiance, Czech radio broadcasted reports of the invasion to the world (describing it as against Soviet principle and international law).
A new hard line government was implemented and Dubcek was expelled but not executed.
There was much backlash over the invasion - particularly from western communists, China and Yugoslavia there were outcries and protests at what was seen as an act of imperialism which damaged relations and in Eastern Europe many people lost faith in communism - seeing that their governments were concerned only with staying in power. There was even a short lived protest in the Red Square in Moscow and Albania actually withdrew from the Warsaw Pact.
In the West, the US condemned Soviet actions (though deemed hypocritical) as did the UN but as with Hungary had little power to take action.

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