Monday, August 20, 2018

Death of Prague Spring

Fifty years ago today, August 20, 1968 Warsaw Pact troops entered Czechoslovakia in opposition to the Prague Spring.

GDR troops were on the border ready to invade when they received an order from Moscow that German troops were not to enter Czechoslovakia. Opponents of reformer Alexander Dubceck felt that German troops back in Czechoslovakia would cause a much larger resistance.

At 23.00 on August 20,1968, 250,000 troops with 2,000 tanks crossed the border. The number of  troops from the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary grew to 500,000.

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