Research Paper on:
The Reaction of the World to the 1968 Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
political change. In January of 1968, Dubcek was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (Medvedev 28). The power of the Czech president were extremely  limited, so the real power at that time rested in the hands of Dubcek, who public popularity was increasing steadily (Medvedev 28). ! A public campaign condemning Stalinism and the  political repression of the past was gathering momentum in Czechoslovakia. The press published detailed descriptions of corruption within the Communist Party and state structures; and, with censorship lifted, a "free  and wide" exchange of opinions began to take place in the nations press (Medvedev 28). New magazines and newspapers were springing up and radical economic reform was on the countrys  agenda (Medvedev 28). Dubcek stated that the country and the party were entering a "new stage of socialist revolution" (Medvedev 28). The authority of the Czech Communist Party "skyrocketed,"  and Alexander Dubcek became a national hero (Medvedev 28). As the Czech people began to move toward democratic reforms in May of 1968, under the pretext of conducting summer maneuvers,  Soviet troops began to concentrate on the western border of the USSR (M!edvedev 28). On August 20-21, 1968, the largest Soviet military force that had been assembled since World War  II crossed the border into Czechoslovakia (Caute 327). Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, August, 21, two gigantic airplanes carrying Soviet troops landed at the Ruzyne Airport in Prague and disgorged  Soviet commandos who immediately seized the main airport building (Caute 327). The airborne part of the invasion soon followed. Every invasion requires an excuse, the Kremlin, as it did  also in 1956 in Hungary, claimed that party and state leaders in Czechoslovakia requested the Soviet troops aid in suppressing "counter-revolutionary forces" (Caute 327). However, the Soviet news agency Tass