Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Tell Brezhnev that he's a traitor and I hate him.

Warsaw Pact forces were utilized at times, such as during the 1968 Prague Spring when they invaded Czechoslovakia to overthrow the reform movement that was being led by Alexander Dubček's government. Lieutenant General Václav Prchlík had already denounced the Warsaw Pact in a televised news conference as an unequal alliance and declared that the Czechoslovak Army was prepared to defend the country's sovereignty by force, if necessary. On August 20, 1968, a force consisting of 23 Soviet Army divisions entered Czechoslovakia.

Between the nights of August 20 and August 21, 1968, Eastern Bloc armies from five Warsaw Pact countries invaded the ČSSR. During the invasion, Soviet tanks ranging in numbers from 5,000 to 7,000 occupied the streets. They were followed by a large number of Warsaw Pact troops ranging from 200,000 to 600,000.

This intervention was explained by the Brezhnev Doctrine, which stated "When forces that are hostile to socialism try to turn the development of some socialist country towards capitalism, it becomes not only a problem of the country concerned, but a common problem and concern of all socialist countries." Implicit in this doctrine was that the leadership of the Soviet Union reserved to itself the right to define "socialism" and "capitalism". Thus, "socialism" was defined according to the Soviet model, and anything significantly different from this model was considered to be a step towards capitalism.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact

The number of tanks... the number of tanks... more tanks than were used in the second world war. Sometimes it is correct to lead your people into suicide. It was not suicide though, really. He gambled, and he lost.

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