Srpen 1968 a překvapivá (?) čínská reakce / The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia and the surprising (?) Chinese reaction

Abstract

This article draws on original Czech archival research and is complemented by reference to secondary sources. It deals with the thawing of Czechoslovak – Chinese relations in 1968, the year of the Prague Spring, in particular with the Chinese reaction to the invasion and the ramifications it had for Chinese foreign policy decisions in the following years and decades, particularly on the improvement in the US–Chinese relations. The author thoroughly documents the course of 1968, during which both parties had very timidly, slowly, yet consistently, worked at improving the already stalled relationship. The abrupt end to such an endeavor brought about by The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia on the 20th and 21st August is also recorded. Specifically, the article deals with both the rhetoric and the objectives that lay behind the Chinese reaction to the invasion. In conclusion,
it is argued that the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia was the final event that triggered the break-up of the homogenous socialist camp and, as such, it was a Pyrrhic victory for the Soviets, already foreshadowing their eventual demise.