Assess the importance of the political and military considerations that led the USSR towards the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.

The Novotny regime in Czechoslovakia fell in December 1968 due to lack of economic reforms unresolved political problems of the Slovak part of the country, and Novotny’s failure to deal with growing friction between the regime and the country’s intellectuals and students. Dubcek was appointed the new president, however during the Prague Spring, the reforms that were brought in by the new leadership began to pose many problems. Although, according to several sources, Moscow …

…that year. Although there seemed to be a share of hesitation among the Politburo members, the decision to stop the reforms by force was reached. Looking at the factors that led USSR towards the invasion, perhaps this was no surprise. It seems like there wasn’t really an alternative, especially taking into the account the immediate circumstances that led to it. The Soviet leadership chose “to resort to repression rather than to bow to reform”.