Tag: Czechoslovakia

What Happened To Czechoslovakia?

This country no longer exist….after the fall of the Soviet Union this nation soon divided along ethnic lines into the Czech Republic and Slovakia….but before that it was a proving ground for nations.

It became an independent country after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War One.  Form a couple of decades Czechoslovakia hummed along as an independent nation and then Hitler pops up and starts dismantling the country pieced by piece until it was swallowed by Hitler’s growing little empire………and then the Nazis were defeated and Czechoslovakia once again was an independent country but not for long….the Red Army liberated the country and it came to pull the nation into the sphere of Soviet influence.

Could the US have saved Czechoslovakia from the horrors of being A Soviet satellite?  Good question with an answer…..

It is often taken for granted that all European nations involved in the early Cold War, save Germany, fell naturally onto one side of the Iron Curtain or the other. Yet Czechoslovakia was not pre-ordained to become part of the Soviet sphere. There were multiple opportunities for the United States to influence its position on the political map of Europe.

Czechoslovakia emerged from the Second World War unaligned. Hitler and Stalin had not allocated it in the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Stalin and Churchill had not included it in their secret 1944 ‘percentages’ deal, which designated spheres of influence in eastern and southern Europe. The victorious Allies had not discussed its orientation at Yalta or Potsdam. Both the Soviets and the Americans had liberated it. But whatever cards Washington had to play, diplomatically and militarily, it gave most of them up in 1945.

https://www.historytoday.com/benn-steil/who-lost-czechoslovakia

As you read Czechoslovakia was not inevitably going to be part of the Soviet sphere….it took America to play fast and loose with the destiny of another country.

The Pendulum Swings

Does anyone remember the Cold War?

The year is 1968–I was on my first tour of duty in Vietnam (9th Inf Div, Mekong Delta) and another event was taking place……the Prague Spring as the MSM had labelled it….

In 1968, with their political, economic and social problems reaching critical mass, the communist party of Czechoslovakia replaced Novotny as Party Leader with Alexander Dubcek. Dubcek pushed practical reforms across the board, not only for Czechoslovakia but for the Warsaw Pact (the Soviet answer to NATO) as well. Dubcek’s reforms would, as he put it, put “a human face” on socialism. He established “a humanistic socialist democracy which would guarantee, among other things, freedom of religion, press, assembly, speech, and travel” Dubcek also pushed to improve relations with every nation in the world, regardless of the social and political affiliations; as a result, Dubcek’s popularity with the people of Czechoslovakia grew immensely. His popularity, however, did not extend to the other nations of the Warsaw Pact.

On the night of August 20, 1968, troops from Russia, Hungary, Bulgaria, East Germany, and Poland occupied Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovakian government immediately declared that the “invasion was a violation of socialist principals, international law, and the United Nations Charter.” (1) During the occupation, those who initiated and supported the liberal reforms were forcibly removed to the Soviet Union in secrete and “were compelled to sign a treaty that provided for the “temporary stationing” of an unspecified number of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia.”1 On April 17th 1969, Dubcek was replaced as First Secretary by Gustav Husak and later was, along with many of his followers, stripped of party affiliation in a purge that slashed party membership by over a third.

http://www.coldwar.org/articles/60s/CzechoslovakiaUprising.asp

You see Ducek had wanted to install more democracy and some economic reforms to his country…..the USSR took exception to these changes and invaded and occupied and the reforms died an instant death.

I bring this history lesson light because the democracy pendulum is beginning to swing again this time to the LEFT.

Prague in the Czech Republic is experiencing the swing….the Communists are making head way in the politics…..

When the United States, Britain and France bombed Syria earlier this month, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis showed support for his Western partners one day before rowing back the next.

The military strike turned from “inevitable” to an act described as changing nothing after Babis was rebuked by the far-left Communist party, showing the fine line the billionaire businessman is walking as he tries to form a government.

Babis is aiming for a pro-Western administration but political fragmentation in October’s election means he needs the pro-Russian Communist party to either support it or abstain, ending the party’s pariah status since communism fell in 1989.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-czech-politics-communists/new-dawn-or-swan-song-czech-communists-eye-slice-of-power-after-decades-idUKKBN1I11BF

Interesting how the political pendulum is swinging to the Left…..fascinating…….

The Prague Spring–1968

1968 was a good year for history…..wars, protests, naval disasters, etc…….

Long before the Arab Spring there was the Prague Spring in 1968…..it was billed in the West as the Czechs attempt to throw off the bonds of communism and step into the light of democracy.

There were volumes written in support of this action here in the West….but was it about Communism and democracy?

On the morning of Aug. 21, 1968, Mr. William Teltscher realized that his trip to Czechoslovakia had ended before it really started. Being a descendant of a traditional wine-trading Jewish family from Mikulov, south Moravia, he decided to visit his native country for the first time since his family left Czechoslovakia in 1939 for England, escaping the Nazi furor. However, he landed in Prague’s Ruzyne airport only to see the tanks being unloaded from Soviet transport planes, so he turned around and left the country on the next plane for London.

He was apparently one of those who believed the Prague Spring might eventually lead to significant changes to the totalitarian system or at least give the citizens of Czechoslovakia the feeling that they are once more able to determine their country’s destiny. Like many other hundreds of thousands, he was deceived.

Source: Exploding the myth of Prague Spring | Prague Post

Once again history was not exactly as it has been painted by the media…..but we already knew that…..right?