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• 1 media/Prague_pont_charles_III_1920_1008334.jpg media/Prague_pont_charles_III_1920_1008334.jpg 2024-07-15T09:04:06-07:00 LBJ and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic 36 image_header 1093583 2024-07-23T10:09:02-07:00 When LBJ took office in late 1963, the recently-formed Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was cautiously undergoing the de-Stalinization process, headed by then-president and first secretary of the Czech Communist Party, Antonin Novotny, who had been selected by Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev. Novotny was a founding member of the Czech Communist Party, and a hard-line Communist who benefited from the favor of Soviet leadership in his rise to power. Novotny repaid the Soviet apparatus by minimizing democratic structures and installing a new, more explicitly Soviet-style constitution in July of 1960, bringing governmental rhetoric and structure further into line with the reality of life in the CSR.
  
  Official relations between Johnson and Novotny were cordial — the two exchanged semi-regular correspondence on scientific and political matters of the day, as the United States hoped to draw the CSR towards the West. LBJ settled into office in late 1963, a year and change after the collapse of the USSR's third Five Year Plan in the CSR and soon preceding a Czechoslovak leadership crisis, which the CIA considered largely "of [Novotny's] own making" due to his perceived reticence to effectively de-Stalinize. The crisis rendered Novotny's popularity and grasp on power tenuous, and U.S. analysts assumed that the Soviet apparatus would have to find a suitable replacement who could effectively liberalize and de-Stalinize the country. Unexpectedly, however, Soviet leadership "dispatched Brezhnev to Prague" to resolve the crisis, and Novotny was unanimously reelected in November of 1964 by the CSR's National Assembly.
  
  Novotny was forced to resign after public displeasure with his leadership reached a fever pitch in early 1968, and was succeeded as first secretary by the reformist Alexander Dubček. Under Dubček's guidance, the CSR saw great increases in political and economic liberalization and de-Stalinization. Dubček's leadership attempted to counter unimaginative, quantity-focused production practices propagated by the Soviet leadership that were entirely unfit for Czechoslovakia's levels of industrial development, and lessened levels of censorship and secret police oversight, bringing the CSR closer to the contemporary West, and increasingly alienating the Soviet apparatus.
  
  The first eight months of Dubček's regime were characterized by ebbs and flows in Czech-Soviet relations, as the CSR drifted towards democracy, countered by consistent threats of Soviet military intervention. A June 1968 CIA special memorandum speculated that "the related crises in internal Czechoslovak politics and in Soviet-Czechoslovak relations seem to have eased," but concluded that "there is a good change that relations between Prague and Moscow will again become very tense." Tensions continued mounting, and in August of 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was invaded by the Soviet Union and the Polish, Bulgarian, and Hungarian Peoples' Republics, and Dubček was arrested. International reactions were swift, as democratic governments and workers' groups the world over expressed their sympathy for the citizens of the CSR and their pursuit of freedom. 
  
  After the invasion, Dubček's reforms were reversed, in a period of Czech history now referred to as "normalization," and the Soviet apparatus installed a more conservative government unlikely to challenge Moscow's dominance. An October 1968 treaty allowed for a decreased Soviet military presence to remain on Czechoslovak territory to "keep the peace" during transition.
• 1 2021-07-06T09:06:39-07:00 Key Figures 6 Descriptions and photographs of key figures involved in the Prague Spring events, with links to relevant documents in Texas ScholarWorks. image_header 2024-03-25T11:31:21-07:00

  In the United States:
  
  Lyndon B. Johnson – As the President in office during the events of the Prague Spring, President Johnson played a pivotal role in the U.S. response to the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces, and many of the documents in this archival collection are addressed to him directly.
  
  Dean Rusk - The Secretary of State under President Johnson. Although his tenure was dominated by the Vietnam War, he also played a key role in the United States' handling of the invasion of Czechoslovakia following the Prague Spring.
  
  Walt Whitman Rostow – The Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to President Johnson, W.W. Rostow played a vital part in shaping how officials in the United States government viewed and responded to the Warsaw Pact forces' invasion of Czechoslovakia.
  
  Bromley K. Smith - A Consultant to the National Security Council during the Prague Spring and subsequent invasion of Czechoslovakia.
  
  Henry Kissinger - The National Security Advisor under President Johnson. Although primarily concerned with U.S. involvement in Vietnam, he also played an important role in the broader U.S. handling of the Cold War and pioneered détente with the Soviet Union.
  
  Jacob D. Beam - The United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia under President Johnson, Beam was present during the Prague Spring and subsequent invasion of Czechoslovakia. He thus served as a vital point of contact for the United States government as U.S. officials assessed the situation and decided on how best to respond.
  
  
  In Communist Countries:
  
  Each name links to the Prague Spring community in Texas ScholarWorks. To find documents related to one of the figures below, please search for their name using the search bar in the top right, then limit your results to the Documenting the Cold War collection.
  
  Leonid Brezhnev – The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the Prague Spring and subsequent invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces.
  
  Anatoly Dobrynin - As the Soviet Ambassador to the United States during the Prague Spring and invasion of Czechoslovakia, Dobrynin played an important role in facilitating communication between the United States and the Soviet Union.
  
  Alexander Dubček – The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring. His efforts to reform the communist government in Czechoslovakia were halted when he was forced to resign following the invasion of Warsaw Pact forces.
  
  Antonín Novotný – The Stalinist President of Czechoslovakia from 1953 to 1968, he was forced to yield power to Alexander Dubček during the Prague Spring.
   
  Ludvik Svoboda - The President of Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring. He was elected on March 30th, 1968 with the support of Alexander Dubček.
  
  Nicolae Ceaușescu – The General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party during the Prague Spring and subsequent invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact Forces. 
  
  Walter Ulbricht – The Chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic during the Prague Spring. Ulbricht played a key role in cooperation between East Germany and the Soviet Union.