Seven Days to Remember - Invasion of Prague 1968

At approximately 11 pm on August 20, 1968,[6] Eastern Bloc armies from five Warsaw Pact countries, Soviet Union, Bulgaria,[7] Poland, Hungary, and East Germany, invaded the ČSSR. That night, 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 2,000 tanks entered the country.[8]

The invasion was well planned and coordinated, simultaneously with the border crossing by ground forces a Soviet airborne division (VDV) captured Prague's Ruzyne International Airport in the early hours of the invasion. It began with a special flight from Moscow which carried more than 100 plainclothes agents. They quickly secured the airport and prepared the way for the huge forthcoming airlift, in which An-12 transport aircraft started arriving and unloading Soviet airborne troops equipped with artillery and light tanks.
Warsaw Pact artillery unit in Czechoslovakia, 1968

As the operation at the airport continued, columns of tanks and motorized rifle troops headed toward Prague and other major centers, meeting no resistance. The bulk of invading forces were from the Soviet Union supported by other countries from the communist bloc. Among them were 28,000 troops[9] of the Polish 2nd Army from the Silesian Military District, commanded by general Florian Siwicki, and all invading Hungarian troops were withdrawn by October 31.[10] Romanian troops did not take part in the invasion,[11]

and neither did Albania, which withdrew from the Warsaw pact over the matter.[12] The degree of participation of the East German Army is dubious, either they were withdrawn within a few days [13] or barely crossed the border.[14]

During the attack of the Warsaw Pact armies, 72 Czechs and Slovaks were killed (19 of those in Slovakia)[15] and hundreds were wounded. Alexander Dubček called upon his people not to resist. He was arrested and taken to Moscow along with several of his colleagues. Dubček and most of the reformers were returned to Prague on August 27, and Dubček retained his post as the party's first secretary until he was forced to resign in April 1969 following the Czechoslovak Hockey Riots.

The invasion was followed by a wave of emigration, unseen before and stopped shortly after (estimate: 70,000 immediately, 300,000 in total),[16] typically of highly qualified people. Western countries allowed these people to immigrate without complications.
[edit] Letter of invitation

Although on the night of the invasion, the Czechoslovak Presidium declared that Warsaw Pact troops had crossed the border without knowledge of the ČSSR Government, the Soviet Press printed an unsigned request, allegedly by Czechoslovak party and state leaders, for "immediate assistance, including assistance with armed forces."[17] At the 14th KSČ Party Congress (conducted secretly, immediately following the intervention), it was emphasized that no member of the leadership had invited the intervention. At the time, a number of commentators believed the letter was fake or non-existent.

In the early 1990s, however, the Russian government gave the new Czechoslovak President, Václav Havel, a copy of a letter of invitation addressed to Soviet authorities and signed by KSČ members Biľak, Švestka, Kolder, Indra, and Kapek. It claimed that "right-wing" media were "fomenting a wave of nationalism and chauvinism, and are provoking an anti-communist and anti-Soviet psychosis." It formally asked the Soviets to "lend support and assistance with all means at your disposal" to save the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic "from the imminent danger of counterrevolution."[18]

A 1992 Izvestia article claimed that candidate Presidium member Antonin Kapek gave Leonid Brezhnev a letter at the Soviet-Czechoslovak Čierna nad Tisou talks in late July which appealed for "fraternal help." A second letter was supposedly delivered by Biľak to Ukrainian Party leader Petro Shelest during the August Bratislava conference "in a lavatory rendezvous arranged through the KGB station chief."[18] This letter was signed by the same five as Kapek's letter, mentioned above.

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[v19d]

Then east germany who came to tell his story stabbed Prague like a trojan horse

[v19d]

Is that Mike Wallace of CBS voice.

[v19d]

The Soviet Union betrayed Dubcek and 1968 began a slow dying of the Soviet Union

[skifi1]

as harmeless as they were in the streets the occupying army would be crushed by militants so easily ... but agressions can be fought by peace .. I hope tis day will be remembered and used as an example of a total human failure ...