Prague Spring, 1968

In August 1968 a small group of pro-Moscow hardliners in the Czechoslovak Communist Party, led by Vasil Bilak, wrote two letters requesting urgent assistance from the Soviet Union to thwart the imminent "counterrevolution" in Czechoslovakia. Both letters were addressed to Leonid Brezhnev, the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU), and both were written in Russian to ensure that they would be read promptly. The first (and more important) letter was signed by Bilak and four of his colleagues: Drahomir Kolder, Alois Indra, Oldrich Svestka, and Antonin Kapek. Brezhnev later used the letter as a formal justification for the impending military invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger met with Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai. The three discussed a large range of topics from Sino-Soviet relations to the Middle East to the influence of Chinese communism.

Excerpts of the Minutes of discussion from the Bulgarian Communist Party Plenum regarding the situation in Czechoslovakia.

A series of three telegrams reporting on a reception held at the Romanian Embassy in Beijing on August 23, 1968. Premier Zhou Enlai attended the event and gave a speech condemning the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party Petro Shelest speaks at a CPSU Plenum on the situation in Czechoslovakia, characterizing the Prague Spring as "a grave, right-wing opportunist danger in a fraternal Communist party and the growth of anti-socialist, counterrevolutionary forces in socialist Czechoslovakia."