* 1968 – Nicolae Ceaușescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.

It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected the First Secretary of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and continued until 21 August when the Soviet Union and all members of the Warsaw Pact, with the notable exception of Romania, invaded the country to halt the reforms.

On the night of 20 – 21 August 1968, Eastern Bloc armies from four Warsaw Pact countries – the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary — invaded the ČSSR.

The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 ( Lexington Books, 20100 510 pp. ISBN 978-0-7391-4304-9

Nicolae Ceauşescu condemning the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968

After the negotiated retreat of Soviet troops, Romania, under the new leadership of Nicolae Ceauşescu, started to pursue independent policies, including the condemnation of the Soviet-led 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia ( Romania being the only Warsaw Pact country not to take part in the invasion ), the continuation of diplomatic relations with Israel after the Six-Day War of 1967 ( again, the only Warsaw Pact country to do so ), and the establishment of economic ( 1963 ) and diplomatic ( 1967 ) relations with the Federal Republic of Germany.

* 1968 – Albania leaves the Warsaw Pact.

The multi-national Communist armed forces ’ sole joint action was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.

He participated in the Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

On the night of 20 – 21 August 1968, Warsaw Pact forces entered Czechoslovakia.

He not only refused to take part in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces, but actively and openly condemned that action.

When other Communist regimes later seemed at risk – in Prague in 1968, in Kabul in 1979, in Warsaw in 1981, he was convinced that, as in Budapest in 1956, only armed force could ensure their survival ".

During the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in summer 1968, he left Europe for the United States.

In the United States, the rise of the New Left and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 created hostility between leftists and the CPUSA, marginalizing it.

The 1968 invasion by Warsaw Pact troops of Czechoslovakia and the suppression of the Prague Spring were also applauded by Ulbricht – East German soldiers were among those massed on the border but did not cross over, probably due to Czech sensitivities about German troops on their soil – and earned him a reputation as a staunch Soviet ally in contrast to Romanian leader Nicolae Ceauşescu, who condemned the invasion.

Starting in the Communist Party of Slovakia, the only road to prominence in Communist Czechoslovakia, he became committee chairman in the town of Žiar nad Hronom, only to be dismissed in the year after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, when he delivered a pro-reform speech to the national congress in 1969 and was thrown out.

Because of Hoxha's dogmatic Stalinist adherence, Albania broke with the Soviet Union in 1960 and formally left the Warsaw Pact in 1968 following the Soviet de-stalinization.

Divisions in the CPGB concerning the autonomy of the party from Moscow reached a crisis in 1968, when Warsaw pact forces intervened in Czechoslovakia.

He participated in the Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968.

This meeting mirrored the mass-meeting gathered in 1968 when Ceauşescu had spoken out against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Treaty countries.

In August 1968, after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, he decided to emigrate to Toronto, Canada.

In 1968, a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia called the Prague Spring took place that included " Action Program " of liberalizations, which described increasing freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of movement, along with an economic emphasis on consumer goods, the possibility of a multiparty government, limiting the power of the secret police and potentially withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact.

* 1968 Warsaw Death Ring: 1939-1944, Interpres.

Prague Spring ( Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar, Russian: пражская весна ) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting on January 5, 1968, and running until August 20 of that year, when the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies ( except for Romania ) invaded the country.

This had been used to justify the invasions of Czechoslovakia in 1968 as well as of the non-Warsaw Pact nation of Afghanistan in 1979.

Between the nights of August 20 and August 21, 1968, Eastern Bloc armies from five Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia.

During the attack of the Warsaw Pact armies, 72 Czechs and Slovaks were killed ( 19 of those in Slovakia ) and hundreds were wounded ( up to September 3, 1968 ).

The CPGB leadership's decision to support the Dubček leadership in Czechoslovakia and oppose the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact intervention in 1968 that led to Dubček's removal widened the divisions within the CPGB.

This doctrine was announced to retroactively justify the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 that ended the Prague Spring, along with earlier Soviet military interventions, such as the invasion of Hungary in 1956.

The ČSLA offered no resistance to the invasion mounted by the Soviets in 1968 in reaction to the " Prague Spring ", and was extensively reorganized by the Soviets following the re-imposition of communist rule in Prague.

* 1969 – Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire 3 days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968.

The Liberators, by Viktor Suvorov, is an eyewitness description of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, from the point of view of a Soviet tank commander.

Control Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, " Action Plan of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia ( Prague, April 1968 )" in Dubcek ’ s Blueprint for Freedom: His original documents leading to the invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Following the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, pressure for neutrality increased.

The era of literary freedom and experiments, which reached its apogee during the Prague Spring of 1968, came to an abrupt end the same summer, with the Soviet invasion and subsequent " normalization.

:" In the West, if Andropov is remembered at all, it is for his brutal suppression of political dissidence at home and for his role in planning the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.

He has a brother, Pavel Forman, 12 years older, a Czech painter who also emigrated after the 1968 invasion, to Australia.

However, during the Prague Spring and the ensuing 1968 invasion, he was in Paris negotiating the production of his first American film.

Released in 1988, this was Binoche's first English language role and was a worldwide success with critics and audiences alike Set against the Russian invasion of Prague in 1968, the film tells the story of the relationships a Czech surgeon, Tomas ( Daniel Day-Lewis ), has with his wife Tereza and his lover Sabina ( Lena Olin ).

However, to project a non-aligned image, he did renew ties in 1967 ; the first Soviet ambassador arrived and presented his credentials in 1968 ( Mobutu did, however, join the U. S. in condemning the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia that year ).

" The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 led to intense Sino-Soviet tension and to the withdrawal of Chinese forces from North Vietnam.