The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2008

late on Aug. 20, 1968. The military aspect went almost flawlessly. Dub- cek and other top Czechoslovak lead- ers were seized before daybreak and sent on one-way trips to Ukraine. The Russians also counted on a sub- missive population. But although there was shock aplenty, there was no awe when civilians, on their way to work on the morning of Aug. 21, found themselves in an occupied country. Whatever their expecta- tions, the Soviet armed forces who invaded a peaceful country were lib- erators only in their own eyes. Czechoslovak passive resistance, abetted by mobile radio transmitters, was total and made known to the world. The crucial party congress the Russians had come to forestall was held under their noses in a Prague factory by pre-selected dele- gates who dressed as workers or arrived in ambulances dressed as doctors or nurses. The delegates swiftly elected a new and more pro- gressive central committee. Every Czech and Slovak, it seemed, was demanding the return of their kid- napped leaders. Although the Soviet hero who was president of Czechoslovakia was obliged by the national resistance to reject the quisling government pre- sented to him, he chose on his own J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 55 Counting correctly on some high-level support in the Czechoslovak leadership, the Politburo struck late on Aug. 20, 1968.