The Prague Spring 1968: A National Security Archive Documents Reader

A collection of 140 documents shedding light on events surrounding the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, documenting this Cold War crisis from both sides of the Iron Curtain. Documents are from previously closed archives of each member of the Warsaw Pact, as well as the American National Security Council, the CIA, and other intelligence agencies. Documents include minutes of meetings, sessions of the Warsaw Pact leading up to the decision to invade, and transcripts of telephone conversations recorded by the KGB. Essays giving historical and political context introduce each section of the collection. Includes a chronology and glossary. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

"I am happy that the co-operation between the National Security Archive in Washington and the Czech foundation, Prague Spring 1968, has resulted in this voluminous collection of documents which, I hope, will lead readers to a closer understanding of the dramatic events that the then Czechoslovakia lived through three decades ago." -- Vclav Havel, President of the Czech Republic, 1998

"The Prague Spring '68 helps answer the question of why the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia as it had Hungary, while it overlooked insubordination elsewhere." -- New York Times, 1998

"This work, the first to document the invasion of Czechoslovakia from the viewpoints of the nations of the Iron Curtain and the West, is a spectacular contribution to the area of political studies. Indeed this work is a tribute to the unification of the Czech and Slovak peoples against a force which greatly outnumbered them in manpower and outweighed them in sheer strength...this work is a must for scholars of political and social studies, as well as for historians. However, the non-scholar is equally important when one looks at the scope of the historical and political content of this immense effort." -- Slavic and East European Journal, 1999