Forty years ago today the world woke up to one of those events which will not be forgotten. An early Soviet winter destroyed the Prague Spring. The process was coldly one-sided and in brutal contrast to the cautious experiments with freedom that Czechoslovakia had conducted. It achieved its objective within hours, but only in the short term. Gentle opponents such as Alexander Dubcek and the student Jan Palach, who killed himself by fire, had an abiding influence on the eventual collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Still today, former members of the 200,000-strong invasion force recall the shock they felt when they found that the stories spun to them about a welcome from the Czechs were lies. It is an episode deserving of immortal memory; but immortal memory needs to be preserved with accuracy and care. Those hoodwinked invaders in...
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