Havel comments on 1968 invasion (08/30/98)

Havel comments on 1968 invasion

RFE/RL Newsline

PRAGUE - President Vaclav Havel, in a Czech Radio address on August 20 marking the 30th anniversary of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czecho-Slovakia by Warsaw Pact countries, said the invasion had revealed communism's "totalitarian character."

He said that for him the short-lived "Prague Spring" meant "a time when one could breathe and speak again after 20 years," and added that "nobody who lived in that era can forget it."

At its headquarters in Prague, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty organized a symposium attended by several key participants in the 1967-1968 reforms, including former officials and dissidents.

| Home Page |