Eloquent words about Aug. 1968

Pres. Petr Pavel, PM Petr Fiala and others gave eloquent speeches yesterday at Czech Radio in commemorating the events of Aug. 1968. Pavel warned about a repeat of history. Fiala spoke about having the courage to defend freedom. Conspicuously missing, esp. after Pa­vel's Ukraine interview this week, was a realistic assessment based on events in the world at the time. Czechs and Slovaks couldn't have known that U.S. Pres. Lyndon Johnson had already been informed of the invasion by Soviet Amb. Anatoly Dobrynin and wasn't in any hurry to respond. As we noted last year, Johnson spoke that same night with the Republican candidate for president, Richard Nixon, and told him that his administration had been worried about what the behavior of "this small country" would lead to. The reality is that Johnson was more concerned about what the invasion would mean for U.S.-Soviet relations and the Democratic convention in three days than about the freedom of Czechs and Slovaks.