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in turn, the enthusiastic applause of an appreciative population. Most of his fellow citizens came quickly to hail him for his own qualities — particularly his tolerance of diversity — not just as the successor to the hated Novotny. When Josef Smrkovsky, a former radical communist who had been humanized by prison, wrote an article in a leading Czechoslovak journal urging that the truth be told, whatever the consequences, the nation took him at his word. A democratic society was re-emerging from the ashes. Now newspapers that could not have been given away in 1967 began to publish enough interesting material to make their sale swift. Television began to report without the “party spirit” of agitation-propaganda that had been a hallmark of the communist system. It sampled public opinion — and the public agreed to speak up — demonstrating thereby that the citizens of a country dominated for 20 years by dictatorship knew precisely what democracy meant. Sixteen thousand young Czechs listened while Smrkovsky and two other reformers responded to their questions in a six-hour marathon. Others, including non-communists, asked for the formation of a new political party or at least a share in how they were to be governed. Those jailed by Novotny organized to press for redress and rehabilitation. Thousands marched to Lany to put flowers on the graves of the Masaryks and to ask questions about the supposed suicide of Czechoslovak <strong>Foreign</strong> Minister Jan Masaryk 20 years earlier. University students denounced the central youth organization that had been a mere transmission belt for the dictatorship. They organized instead to represent their own interests. Big Brother Reacts This was not music to all ears. Novotny, still president of the repub- 54 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JULY-AUGUST 2008 The explosion of spontaneity that began on Jan. 5, 1968, had little to do with anything Dubcek said or wrote. lic, made a warning speech to factory workers timed with the commemoration of the February 1948 Prague Coup, when Brezhnev, East German dictator Walter Ulbricht and other prominent foreign communists would be present. Our embassy was told that if the “bad guys” came back, heads would roll. Novotny would not be the bad guy, however, for he was driven from office in March, partially by the startling defection to the United States of a sybaritic military officer with many inside stories to relate. Dubcek and his colleagues replaced him with a retired general officer, Ludvik Svoboda (whose surname meant freedom in both Czech and Russian), who had the additional cachet of being a hero of the USSR. They felt such insurance was needed because the new Czechoslovak leadership had been subjected (on March 26) to heavy criticism by leaders of other Warsaw Pact countries in a conference in Dresden. This was the first whiff of August. Although chastened, Czechslovak leaders continued on course. Their progress reached a climax on May Day 1968 — a day traditionally dedicated to ideologically correct demonstrations in the socialist camp — when a grinning, waving Dubcek was hailed by hundreds of thousands of marching Czechs and Slovaks as their friendly neighborhood communist. That night he was summoned to Moscow by Brezhnev, whose bushy eyebrows were furrowed with concern. Within a week, Moscow convened a Warsaw Pact meeting — without Czechoslovakia. A crisis lay ahead. As early as January 1968, our embassy had warned Washington that democracy would eventually run into the “leading role” of the Communist Party, the heart and soul of dictatorship. As a lifelong communist, Dubcek, of course, knew well about the leading role; but as a tolerant man whose socialist face was full of human emotion, he chose to interpret it in a didactic sense. The party should teach, edify, illuminate, admonish if necessary, but not just command. That would strengthen, not weaken, the party, he insisted. The Russians listened. They liked their “Sasha.” But they were not buying his argument. Public dissent and publication of unpalatable opinions were not acceptable in socialist society, in their view. Late spring and early summer saw military maneuvers, followed by an ominous letter from a five-power meeting in Warsaw where the five warned that socialism was not something with which Czechoslovakia was free to meddle. Meanwhile Czechoslovak citizens, their patriotic impulses spurred by the outside threat, called on their leadership to stand firmly by the “post-January” course. Having achieved even a limited taste of freedom, they were not ready to give in. The Czechoslovak leadership, which contained covert critics of Dubcek, was caught between domestic public opinion and the menace from neighboring states. The Tanks of August Counting correctly on some highlevel support in the Czechoslovak leadership, the Politburo struck
Counting correctly on some high-level support in the Czechoslovak leadership, the Politburo struck late on Aug. 20, 1968. late on Aug. 20, 1968. The military aspect went almost flawlessly. Dubcek and other top Czechoslovak leaders were seized before daybreak and sent on one-way trips to Ukraine. The Russians also counted on a submissive population. But although there was shock aplenty, there was no awe when civilians, on their way to work on the morning of Aug. 21, found themselves in an occupied country. Whatever their expectations, the Soviet armed forces who invaded a peaceful country were liberators only in their own eyes. Czechoslovak passive resistance, abetted by mobile radio transmitters, was total and made known to the world. The crucial party congress the Russians had come to forestall was held under their noses in a Prague factory by pre-selected delegates who dressed as workers or arrived in ambulances dressed as doctors or nurses. The delegates swiftly elected a new and more progressive central committee. Every Czech and Slovak, it seemed, was demanding the return of their kidnapped leaders. Although the Soviet hero who was president of Czechoslovakia was obliged by the national resistance to reject the quisling government presented to him, he chose on his own JULY-AUGUST 2008/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 55
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A TIRELESS “AFSA-CATE” ■ HONO
Page 6 and 7: CONTENTS AFSA NEWS DISSENTERS HONOR
Page 8 and 9: Getting History Wrong I was astonis
Page 10 and 11: Forgetting History The April Cybern
Page 12 and 13: National Security Infrastructure: D
Page 14 and 15: Saharan Africa, where the number of
Page 16 and 17: Association for Diplomatic Studies
Page 18 and 19: udget of $3.5 million, and a profes
Page 20 and 21: Pinochet to form a political party
Page 22 and 23: aircraft was an American flag carri
Page 24 and 25: of State’s attention to managemen
Page 26 and 27: In recent months, the growing secur
Page 28 and 29: Commission and the Judicial Reform
Page 30 and 31: of government — notwithstanding t
Page 32 and 33: setup, relying on elected provincia
Page 34 and 35: order is a barrier to change, educa
Page 36 and 37: development and governance prioriti
Page 38 and 39: 36 FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL/JULY-AUG
Page 40 and 41: institutional memory, as well as th
Page 42 and 43: ise of the Taliban. This has been b
Page 44 and 45: Durand Line broke the region’s do
Page 46 and 47: Center, that the TTP is bound to re
Page 48 and 49: On Sept. 7, 1948, Secretary of Stat
Page 50 and 51: ecame increasingly chaotic, with cr
Page 52 and 53: What I want to get at is a problem
Page 58 and 59: authority and against the advice of
Page 61 and 62: AFSANEWS American Foreign Service A
Page 63 and 64: V.P. VOICE: STATE ■ BY STEVE KASH
Page 65 and 66: 2008 AFSA CONSTRUCTIVE DISSENT AWAR
Page 67 and 68: 2008 AFSA CONSTRUCTIVE DISSENT AWAR
Page 69 and 70: 2008 AFSA OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE A
Page 71 and 72: AUSTIN TRACY Scholarship Winners Ho
Page 73 and 74: AFSA Issue Brief Foreign Service Re
Page 75 and 76: CLASSIFIEDS JULY-AUGUST 2008/FOREIG
Page 77 and 78: Cultural Diplomacy’s Finest Hour
Page 80 and 81: Lucius Durham Battle, 89, a retired
Page 82 and 83: ing French and Spanish literature a
Page 84 and 85: Comforts, that specialized in anima
Page 86 and 87: Washington, D.C., in 1941. There sh
Page 88 and 89: losing a battle with cancer. Born i
Page 90 and 91: Leasing and Management of Exception
Page 94: Seven months ago, I was living in a
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