Czechs and the Indo-Pacific

An analysis from Aug. 21, 1973, that we cited on Fri. argued that the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in Aug. 1968 benefited the U.S. by helping to end the two-decade schism between Washington and Peking (now Beijing). China saw the Soviet invasion as a trial run for a planned invasion of China. "In effect," the analysis said, "the political base was laid for a possible future Chinese-American alliance against the Soviet Union." That new China policy was the work of Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon. The stated policy today of An­tony Blinken and Joe Biden is to stand up for core values in confronting China, which is having the effect of driving Moscow and Beijing closer together, not apart. Included in this effort is the Indo-Pacific strategy of the White House. Czech Speaker of the House Markéta Pekarová Adamová traveled to Washington last week in part to "coordinate action in the Indo-Pacific." China learned from the 1968 invasion and probably won't have to attack Taiwan now to achieve its goals, but it's hard to see how Czechs benefit from this type of great-power politics any more now than they did in Aug. 1968.