The Deepening Communist Schism

It will be many weeks before details are leaked to the world press about the agreement between the Czechs and Russians in early August. No sensible person, remembering Hungary, will feel anything but relief at the thought that the threat of Russian intervention has been temporarily averted. We may well be skeptical about Dubcek’s claim that he made no major concession to the Russians. Given the political-military realities, concessions were probably unavoidable. Even the “liberal” forces in Prague, those still within the CP and those grouped into amorphous political clubs, will agree that some concessions had to be made. The question is: which concessions? how far did they go?

Together with the good news, there ...