Communists: Prague's Purposeful Hospitality

It begins to look as though no Communist leader in Eastern Europe is going to consider his summer complete without at least one visit to Czechoslovakia. First it was nearly the entire Soviet Politburo that dropped in, hoping to persuade Czechoslovak Party Chief Alexander Dubcek and his colleagues to mend their reforming ways. Next came Yugoslavia's Marshal Josip Broz Tito to congratulate Dubcek & Co. on standing firm against Moscow. Tito had scarcely departed Prague last week when another visitor arrived, this one again hostile: East Germany's Walter Ulbricht, who had led the propaganda barrage against the Dubcek regime.

Though Ulbricht had come to Czechoslovakia to sign the Bratislava truce along with the Russians, Poles, Hungarians and Bulgarians two weeks ago, the Czechoslovaks soon discovered that Ulbricht remained a bitter opponent. In talks at the spa of Karlovy Vary that lasted from mid-morning until 2 a.m. the next day, Ulbricht attacked Dubcek's internal reforms and warned against any shift in Prague's foreign policy that would further undermine East bloc unity (see following story). The Czechoslovaks were willing to reassure Ulbricht about their foreign policy, but they insisted that they needed no one's advice on how to manage their domestic affairs.

Friendship Pact. After a press conference later that morning, Ulbricht took off for home. Once he was aloft, the crowd of Czechoslovaks that had dutifully gathered at the airport to wave the East German boss on his way erupted into a demonstration of joy—and relief. They mobbed Dubcek, Premier Oldrich Cernik and Presidium Member Josef Smrkovsky. The Czechoslovak leaders responded by signing autographs, slapping backs and bussing the pretty girls. At one point, Dubcek grabbed Smrkovsky and turned his face to the crowd so that the people could see the lipstick smears.

Then it was back to Prague to greet a welcome guest: Rumania's President and party boss Nicolae Ceausescu, who strongly backs Dubcek's independent-minded policies. At a reception in his honor, Ceausescu cornered the Soviet Ambassador to Prague, Stepan Chervonenko. In full earshot of other guests, he gave the Russian a 30-minute lecture on the evils of interfering in other countries' affairs. As a gesture of unity, Ceausescu and the Czechoslovaks signed a new friendship pact between the two countries. The Czechoslovaks and Rumanians also discussed embarking upon a form of economic cooperation similar to the scheme that had been proposed by Tito. Under Tito's plan, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia will create a sort of two-country common market that will enable each country to draw on the other's investment capital, labor pool and special industrial talents. There were some signs, most notably new attacks in the Soviet press against Dubcek's programs and the resumption of Warsaw Pact maneuvers along Czechoslovakia's northern border, that the Soviets had started a fresh buildup of pressure. But as a successful host, Dubcek was recruiting the sort of support from his sympathetic guests that might make it more difficult than ever for the Soviets to use the threat of force to bring the liberals in Prague to heel.