The Press TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1968. Prague And Bucharest

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31774, 3 September 1968, Page 14

The Press TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1968. Prague And Bucharest

Apart from the 600,000 Warsaw Pact troops occupying Czechoslovakia, a reported 1,200,000 Soviet troops are ranged along the Russian borders of Czechoslovakia and Rumania. This build-up of forces in the last week has aroused apprehension in the capitals of the West, as well as in Prague and Bucharest. What new Draconian measures was the Kremlin plotting to enforce on the hapless Czechoslovaks? Was Rumania, too, about to be invaded? On the second score, at least, reassurance was soon forthcoming; the Soviet Ambassador to the United States (Mr Dobrynin) called on the Secretary of State (Mr Rusk) last Friday to assure him that Russia was not planning to take military action against Rumania.

Russian lies about the invasion of Czechoslovakia notwithstanding, this assurance appears to have allayed Washington’s fears of another Russian invasion in Central Europe. Had Russia intended to invade Rumania it is more likely that Mr Dobrynin would have stayed away from Mr Rusk. Mr Dobrynin’s call on Mr Johnson within hours of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia on August 20 will be remembered. No higher motive than self-interest need be ascribed to the Russians to explain such frankness; keeping the Americans well informed on their moves is one way of ensuring that the Americans do not act hastily on wrong intelligence, as they did in the Bay of Pigs and seem to have done in the Gulf of Tonkin.

The build-up of Russian forces along the Rumanian border may well be intended to intimidate the Rumanians, whose own liberal reforms and whose criticisms of the Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia have irritated the Russians. If the terrible example of Czechoslovakia persuades the Rumanians to slow down their reforms and to stifle criticism of Russia, the tension in all the Warsaw Pact countries may be reduced. Provoking the Russians at this stage would neither help Rumania’s progress towards independence nor persuade the Russians to ease the yoke they have riveted on Czechoslovakia’s neck. That the Russian yoke is chafing is becoming more apparent as each day’s dismal bulletins from Prague reach the outside world. One Minister has resigned and his deputy has committed suicide; Mr Dubcek continues his efforts to form a Government acceptable both in Moscow and in Prague. His wellwishers in Bucharest, in Washington, and anywhere else where Russia is represented, will do Mr Dubcek more harm than good by rash talk of fighting Russian aggression. Czechoslovakia’s headlong flight to freedom from Russian domination has been brought to a rude halt, and Czechoslovakia alone —at present —must find a more patient, devious route to the same goat