World: END OF THE DUB

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Extra police, reinforced by Czechoslovak troops, were on duty in Prague and other cities to cope with demonstrations, but there were none. The students, unable to decide what to do, did nothing. Similarly, the workers staged no protests. Though they previously had threatened strikes if Dubček or Smrkovský should be demoted, union organizations issued an appeal for all Czechoslovaks to "avoid rash acts."

Dangerous Drift. The calm resulted in part from apathy, hopelessness and fear. In the wake of the March 28 riots that were touched off by the Czechoslovak team's victory over the Soviets in the international ice-hockey finals, the Russians had made it clear that, in the event of another major demonstration, they would send in their tanks. Another cause was the fact that Dubček no longer commanded the fierce loyalty that had united and inspired the Czechoslovak people six or eight months ago. Unnerved and physically exhausted, Dubček in recent weeks has withdrawn almost entirely from public life. Though sympathizing with his plight, many Czechoslovaks felt that his emotional make-up was poorly suited to the daily strain of coping with Soviet demands; they believed that toward the end he had allowed the country to lapse into a dangerous period of drift and indecision. A tough Husák, they hoped, might be able to bargain more skillfully with the Russians and more effectively protect Czechoslovakia's interests.

Even so, Dubček's ouster represented the culmination of a tragedy for Czechoslovakia. Dubcek had not sought to overthrow Communism; he wanted only, in his words, "to give it a human face" by removing needless abuses and brutalities. For a time, it seemed as if the tall, soft-spoken Slovak might succeed. Channeling a groundswell of discontent among both intellectuals and workers against the Stalinist regime of President and Party Boss Antonin Novotny, Dubček in early 1968 managed to overthrow the old order and institute the most far-ranging reforms and freedoms that had ever been attempted in a Communist country.

Under Dubček, Czechoslovaks experienced an exhilarating release from 20 years of police-state repression. New laws were enacted that granted rights ranging from freedom of the press and speech to the privilege of traveling abroad and emigrating. Artistic and political expression bloomed, and the country pulsed with hope and excitement. But Czechoslovakia's new ebullience frightened the Soviet and other East Bloc leaders, who feared that their own people would demand similar reforms. At a Warsaw Pact summit meeting in Dresden in March 1968, East German Boss Walter Ulbricht reportedly waved his arms ominously over the other Party leaders, warning: "We will all soon be in danger, if not swept out of office." Soviet tanks, of course, averted that eventuality and ended Dubček's stirring, if perhaps hopelessly Utopian experiment in mingling democracy and Communism.