19. Juli 1968
1579, 2-15 Heute kommt alles ... doch alles runterkäme - Vgl. NYT 19.7.1968: »Yesterday afternoon signaled the end of New York’s current heat wave.
A band of thunder showers sweeping across the city from the west as a prelude to the arrival of cooler, drier air sent the temperatures plummeting a dozen degrees.«

1579, 4 Mrs. Eileen Bradley - Fehler in allen Ausgaben; die Besitzerin des Tabakkiosks ist Eileen O’Brady.

1579, 16-
1582, 25
Was also liegt ... Demokratie des Sozialismus - Die fünf komm. Parteien der Warschauer Konferenz richteten am 15.7.1968 den »Warschauer Brief« an die Regierung der ČSSR (s.K. 1561, 39-1562, 9). Die Entgegnung »Stellungnahme des Präsidiums des ZK der KPČ zum gemeinsamen Brief von fünf kommunistischen und Arbeiterparteien« erschien auf deutsch in der »Prager Volkszeitung« vom 26.7.1968. Johnson benutzte die Übersetzung der NYT vom 19.7.1968 »Reply by Prague Rejects Criticisms Leveled by Others in Eastern European Bloc«; hier heißt es u. a.: »The Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia has thoroughly studied the letter it received addressed [sic] the Central Committee of our party from the meeting of the representatives of the parties of five socialist countries in Warsaw. [...]
The number of fears explained in the letter were also expressed in the resolution of our May plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia.
However, we see the causes of the conflicting situation mainly in the fact that these conflicts accumulated over the years preceding the January plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia.
These conflicts cannot be satisfactorily solved suddenly in a short time.
In the process of the realization of the political line of the action program of our party it is, therefore, unavoidable that the wide mass stream of healthy socialist activities is accompanied by extremist tendencies, that the remnants of antisocialist forces in our society are also trying to go along and that at the same time the dogmatic-sectarian forces connected with the faulty policy of the pre-January period are also spreading their activities. [...]
Not even the party itself can remain untouched by internal disputes which accompany this process of unification on the line of the action program.
One of the negative aspects of this process is also the violation of the principles of democratic centralism in the dealings of some Communists, which is mainly one of the results of the fact that for many long years the old party leadership applied bureaucratic centralism and suppressed internal party democracy. [...]
We do not wish to hide these facts and we do not hide them either from our own party and people. [...]
We do not, however, see any realistic reasons permitting our present situation to be called counterrevolutionary, statements on the immediate endangering of the basis of the socialist system or statements that Czechoslovakia is preparing a change in the orientation of our socialist foreign policy and that there is a concrete danger of separating our country from the socialist society.
[...] The liberation from Nazi occupation and the entry onto the path of a new life if [sic] forever connected in the consciousness of our people with the historical victory of the U.S.S.R. in the Second World War, with respect to the heroes who laid down their lives in this battle. [...]
We shall strive for the friendly relations between our allies - the countries of the world socialist system - to deepen on the basis of mutual respect, sovereignty and equality, mutual esteem and international solidarity. In these senses we shall contribute more actively and with a worked-out concept to the common activities of the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Treaty. [...]
As regards our relations with the G.F.R., it is universally known that although Czechoslovakia is the immediate neighbor of the G.F.R., it was the last to take definite steps toward the partial regulation of mutual relations, particularly in the economic field, while other socialist countries adapted their relations to one or another extent much earlier without it causing any fears.
At the same time, we thoroughly respect and protect the interests of the C.D.R. [sic], our socialist ally, and do all in our power to strengthen its international position and authority. This is definitely proved by all the speeches of the leading representatives of our party and state in the entire period after January 1968.
Commitments Are Respected
The agreements and treaties which connect the socialist countries are an important factor of mutual cooperation, peace and collective security. Czechoslovakia fully respects its contractual commitments and further develops the system of treaties with socialist countries, which is proved by the new friendship treaties which we recently concluded with the Bulgarian People’s Republic and the Hungarian People’s Republic, and also the prepared treaty on friendship and cooperation with the Rumanian Socialist Republic. [...]
The staff exercise of the allied forces of the Warsaw Treaty on the territory of Czechoslovakia are a concrete proof of our faithful fulfillment of our alliance commitments.
In order to insure its smooth course we took the necessary measures on our side. Our people and the members of the army gave a friendly welcome to the Soviet and the other allied soldiers on the territory of Czechoslovakia, the top representatives of the party and Government by their participation proved what importance we attach to it and the interest we have in it.
The obscurities and some doubts in the minds of our public occurred only after the repeated changes of the time of the departure of the allies’ armies from the territory of Czechoslovakia at the end of the exercise. [...]
We do not doubt that the undermining of the leading role of the Communist party would threaten the liquidation of socialist society. Just for this reason it is essential that we should understand each other on the question of what is the condition for the strength of the Socialist system and the strengthening role of the Communist party. [...]
The Communist party depends on the voluntary support of the people. It is not implementing its leading role by ruling over the society but by faithfully serving its free, progressive socialist development. It cannot impel its authority, but must constantly acquire it by its actions. [...]
Any indication of a return to these methods would evoke the resistance of the overwhelming majority of party members, the resistance of the working class, the workers, cooperative farmers and intelligentsia.
The party would by such a step imperil its political leading role and would create a situation in which a power conflict would really arise. This would truly threaten the socialist advantages of the people and also our common interests in the anti-imperialist front of the socialist community. [...]
Our party has worked out its tactical political plan and is solving the problems according to it. [...]
Our party has laid down the following main aims and stages of political work. 1. To consistently separate the party as a whole from the distortions of the past for which specific persons of the old party leadership are responsible: These specific people are justifiably being called to task.
2. To prepare the fourteenth extraordinary congress of the party which will evaluate the development and political situation during the January plenum and in accordance with the principles of democratic centralism will lay down the compulstory [sic] line for the entire party, will adopt an attitude to the federal arrangement of Czechoslovakia, will approve the new party statue [sic] and elect a new Central Committee so that it has the full authority and confidence of the party and the entire society.
3. After the fourteenth congress to launch the offensive for the solution of all the fundamental internal political questions: toward the construction of a political system based on the socialist platform of the National Front and social self government, the solution of the federal constitutional arrangement, the elections to the representative bodies of the state, federal, national and local) [sic] and the preparation of a new constitution. [...]
At present we are at the stage of the political fight to implement the line of the May plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia. It is a real fight and, therefore, we both win but also suffer drawbacks.
According to the results of the individual battles, however, it would not be correct to judge the outcome of the whole war. Despite this we think that we have managed to consolidate the political situation since the May plenum. [...]
Delegates have been elected to the congress, and their composition is a guarantee that the future fate of the party will not be decided by representatives of extremist opinions, but the democratically-appointed progressive core of our party. [...]
The Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia, the Government and the National Front clearly rejected the appeal of the statement of ›2,000 Words,‹ which urges people to engage in anachist [sic] acts, and to violate the constitutional character of our political reform. It should be noted that, following these negative positions, similar campaigns in fact did not occur in our country and that the consequences of the appeal ›2,000 Words‹ did not threaten the party, the National Front and the socialist state. [...]
We know that this situation is facilitated by the abolition of censorship in our country and the enactment of freedom of expression and of the press. What had been spread in form of ›whispered propaganda‹ etc. before can now be expressed openly.
By the law of judiciary rehabilitation we basically solved the painful problem of the illegal reprisals against innocent people which took place in the past years. This step has so clearly helped that the attention of the wide public and the mass communications media no longer concentrate on these questions.
In September - immediately after the party congress - other new important laws will be discussed: the constitutional law on the National Front, which is to confirm the permanent existence of the system of political parties on the ground of the National Front, and, further, a law on the right for assembly and association which sets forth the legal regulations for the birth and activities of various voluntary organisations, associations, clubs, etc.
This will give the opportunity to effectively face attempts of anti-Communist forces to gain an organizational basis for public activities. [...]
We, therefore, consider all pressure directed at forcing the party onto another path, that is to settle basic questions of its policy elsewhere and at another time than at the fourteenth congress, the principal danger to the successful consolidation of the leading role of the party in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. [...]
It is not our fault that the meeting in Warsaw was held without us. We discussed the proposals of the five parties for holding this meeting at the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia twice - on July 8 and 12 - and each time we immediately conveyed our view on the method this meeting was to be prepared as we believed to be most correct.
Unfortunately, our meeting of July 12 was already superfluous because, notwithstanding its outcome, the meeting had already been convened for July 14, a fact we learned only through Ceteka in the afternoon of July 13, at the time when the representatives of the five parties were already on their way to Warsay [sic]. [...]
This is in the interest of our common fight against imperialism, for peace and the security of nations, for democracy and socialism«; vgl. »Prawda« vom 18.7.1968; Fischer (1994), S. 71-83.

1579, 20 Gruß zuvor - s.K. 166, 30.

1579, 28 Fronde - (frz.) Schleuder. Ursprünglich Bezeichnung einer gegen Kardinal Mazarin und den absolutistischen frz. König gerichteten Adelsbewegung, 1648-53; übertragen: oppositionelle Gruppe innerhalb der herrschenden Schicht; »dogmatic-sectarian forces« in der engl. Übersetzung der NYT.

1579, 30 jedes Auge trocken bleiben - s.K. 1374, 2-18.

1579, 36 konterrevolutionär - s.K. 1456, 14f.

1581, 15f. Nationalen Front - s.K. 1374, 7f.

1581, 18 bannig - (nd.) besonders.

1581, 23-29 Jene »Zweitausend Worte« ... noch einmal vorkommen - s.K. 1438, 7-1446, 2.

1583, 17 Guten EßGeschäft - s.K. 176, 11.

1584, 5f. Gray Bar-Hauses - s.K. 127, 31.