Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 41 No. 21. August 28 1978

Czechoslovakia - Ten Years of Soviet Occupation

Czechoslovakia - Ten Years of Soviet Occupation

80,000 Soviet occupation troops still remain in Czechoslavakia although ten years have passed since the invasion of that country by the Soviet Union and four Warsaw Pact dependencies: Bulgaria, East Germany, Poland and Hungary. The troops were supposed to have been withdrawn when the situation "normalised" but remain as symbols of Russian overlord ship.

The invasion started on a night in August 1968 as Warsaw pact tanks, troops and aircraft poured across the border without warning. Taking a leaf out of the American's book they justified their action claiming they had been "invited" by the Czech government. Actually the invasion was not supported by any leading body in the Government or Communist Party. It was the first major concrete manifestation of the brutal "Brezhnev doctrine"; that is, the policy of the Soviet Union as an ascendent, imperialist superpower.