NID: CZECHOSLOVAKIA: REGIME INCREASINGLY FEARFUL

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: A 30-Year Legacy
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06826763
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2019
• Publication Date: August 19, 1989

Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826763
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CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Regime Increasingly Fearful
Czechoslovak hardliners, showing signs of panic, plan to crack down
hard on demonstrations held tomorrow and Monday to mark the
anniversary of the Soviet invasion in 1968.
Comment: Evidently alarmed by the events unfolding in Poland and
Hungary, the leadership has decided it must suppress these protests to
show the party rank and file and the population that it is determined
to stay in power.
A massive show of
force and violent suppression of peaceful rallies might spark
widespread protests in factories besides in the streets.
NR Record
7
�rdp-Seeret..__
TCS 2893/89
19 August 1989
Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826763
Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826763
-"TSeevoL._
Czechoslovakia: Warsaw Pact Countries Reassess the 1968
Invasion
The Czechoslovak regime's legitimacy is being eroded by the
reassessment of the Soviet-led invasion in 1968 taking place among
its allies:
USSR. Although Moscow has not officially condemned the invasion,
Soviet academics and commentators close to President Gorbachev
have publicly termed it a mistake. Some senior Soviet officials have
implicitly criticized the intervention by openly repudiating the
Brezhnev Doctrine, a Western term coined in 1968 to describe the
official Soviet justification for the invasion, and a commission has
reportedly prepared an official reassessment that criticizes the
intervention.
Hungary. The current leadership recently disassociated itself from the
Kadar regime's decision to participate in the invasion.
Poland. Both the Sejm and the Solidarity-controlled Senate have
voted to condemn Polish participation in the invasion as being
against the will of the Polish people and interference in Czechoslovak
internal affairs.
East Germany. East German media commentary, on the other
hand, maintains that the "fraternal international assistance" was
instrumental in preventing "antisocialist forces" from taking power
in Czechoslovakia.
"rairSe6ge.L.
TCS 2893/89
19 August 1989
Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826763