Sunday 17 August 2008

1938, 1956, 1968, 2008

On August 21st, it will be 40 years ago since Soviet tanks invaded Czecho-Slovakia to suppress the liberal regime. The C/S leader Alexander Dubcek was removed in favour of Gustav Husak, a puppet of Leonid Brezhnev's USSR. The Czech people resisted by non-violent means, with Jan Palach setting himself on fire in protest.

Do we see an echo of this, and the 1956 invasion of Hungary now in Georgia? The times, like I said last week, when the USSR did not tolerate dissent around its borders? I am sorely tempted to say 'yes', in spite of all the rather empty sounding reassurances from Moscow. Condoleezza Rice's statements to me echo of 1938, when Neville Chamberlain did a successful exercise in planting his head in the sand in the face of aggression from Adolf Hitler. I don't like what's happening there.

2 comments:

  1. I totally agree

    http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeanno43/JeannettesJottings/

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  2. That is rather scary
    Jayne

    ReplyDelete