The US Policy During The Prague Spring

In January 1968 , a reform movement known as the "Prague Spring" was launched in Czechoslovakia. This reform movement led by dubcek demanded that "socialism with a human face" be established, which was a brave try to explore socialism road independently. On August 20, 1968, massive military forces of the soviet Union and four other Warsaw Pact States occupied Czechoslovakia suddenly and without warning for fear that the reform would contaminate other Eastern Europe Countries. This event surprised the whole world.To the soviet invasion, the US government adopted a non-interference policy, however. There are five reasons can explain this: First, the Eastern Europe no longer played the most important role in the US foreign policy in the 1960s. Second, the Johnson administration was afraid that a new Berlin Crisis would be caused if the US interfere with the Czechoslovakia affairs. Third, the Hungarian revolution twelve years ago had a great impact on the US. Fourth, many top officials in the US government were governed by the notion of the spheres of influence. Last, the crisis handling patterns between US and the Soviet Union restricted their behaviors.Although Johnson administration' s non-interference policy made the Soviet interrupt the Prague Spring and the US lose a good opportunity to bring about evolutionary changes in an Eastern Europe Country, a serious confrontation was avoided and in the long run, the image of the Soviet Union, the unity of the international communist movement were damaged while the NATO was strengthened by the invasion. So the US is the final winner.In a word, the US foreign policies during the cold war were generally bounded by the ideology, but sometimes the US would make a concession in this aspect so as not to offend the Soviet Union, which reflects the reality and flexibility of the US foreign policies. The sagacity of the Johnson administration' s non-interference policy during the Prague Spring does lie in this.