Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

Operation Danube
Part of the Cold War, the Prague Spring, the Sino–Soviet split, the Albanian–Soviet split, the Romanian–Soviet split, the Yugoslav–Soviet split, and the protests of 1968
Photograph of a Soviet T-54 in Prague during the Warsaw Pact's occupation of Czechoslovakia
Date 20–21 August 1968 Location Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Result Warsaw Pact victory Suppression of the reform process within the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) Moscow Protocol The resignation of Alexander Dubček as First Secretary of the KSČ The election of Gustáv Husák as the First Secretary of the KSČ and beginning of the "Normalization" era Significant Soviet military presence in Czechoslovakia until 1991 Formal withdrawal of People's Republic of Albania from the Warsaw Pact in September 1968
Belligerents
Warsaw Pact:  Soviet Union  Poland  Bulgaria  Hungary Logistics support:  East Germany[a]	Czechoslovakia Supported by  Albania
Commanders and leaders
Leonid Brezhnev Nikolai Podgorny Alexei Kosygin Andrei Grechko Ivan Yakubovsky Konstantin Provalov Władysław Gomułka Marian Spychalski Józef Cyrankiewicz Wojciech Jaruzelski Bolesław Chocha [pl] Florian Siwicki Todor Zhivkov Dobri Dzhurov János Kádár Lajos Czinege Walter Ulbricht	Alexander Dubček Ludvík Svoboda Oldřich Černík Martin Dzúr
Strength
Initial invasion: 250,000 (20 divisions)[1] 2,000 tanks[2] 800 aircraft Peak strength:[citation needed] 350,000–400,000 Soviet troops, 70,000–80,000 from Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary[3] 6,300 tanks[4]	235,000 (18 divisions)[5][6] 2,500–3,000 tanks
Casualties and losses
96 killed (84 in accidents) 87 wounded[7] 5 soldiers committed suicide[8] 10 killed (in accidents and suicides)[9] 4 killed (in accidents) 2 killed	137 civilians and soldiers killed,[10] 500 seriously wounded[11]
70,000 Czechoslovak citizens fled to the West immediately after the invasion. Total number of emigrants before the Velvet Revolution reached 300,000.[12]

On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria and the Hungarian People's Republic. The invasion stopped Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring liberalisation reforms and strengthened the authoritarian wing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ).

About 250,000 Warsaw Pact troops (afterwards rising to about 500,000), supported by thousands of tanks and hundreds of aircraft, participated in the overnight operation, which was code-named Operation Danube. The Socialist Republic of Romania and the People's Republic of Albania refused to participate,^[13][14] while East German forces, except for a small number of specialists, were ordered by Moscow not to cross the Czechoslovak border just hours before the invasion^[15] because of fears of greater resistance if German troops were involved, due to public perception of the previous German occupation three decades earlier.^[16] 137 Czechoslovaks were killed^[10] and 500 seriously wounded during the occupation.^[11]

Public reaction to the invasion was widespread and divided, including within the communist world. Although the majority of the Warsaw Pact supported the invasion along with several other communist parties worldwide, Western nations, along with socialist countries such as Romania, and particularly the People's Republic of China and People's Republic of Albania condemned the attack. Many other communist parties also lost influence, denounced the USSR, or split up or dissolved due to conflicting opinions. The invasion started a series of events that would ultimately pressure Brezhnev to establish a state of détente with U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1972 just months after the latter's historic visit to the PRC.

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