World: END OF THE DUB

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Despite his threats and perhaps unnecessarily severe attacks on Dubček, Husák, a political liberal and fervent Slovak nationalist, remains committed to the "positive aspects" of what is left of the reform program. Though he used the term "counterrevolutionary" to refer to dissident Czechoslovaks, his own nine years in a Communist prison are thought to have left him with an abhorrence of police terror and political arrests. In all likelihood, Czechoslovakia will not win back its freedom under Husák, but that is beyond the country's power anyway. At the very best, the new Party leader may be able to strike a working arrangement with the Russians that will reduce the constant peril of renewed Soviet military intervention and bloodshed and perhaps lead eventually to a further withdrawal of the occupation force.