From Washington Straight

In August of 1968, about three days before the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia, Alexander Dubcek, the First Secretary of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party, met with Janos Kadar, the First Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party, whom the Soviets had placed in power in 1956. The meeting took place at a town on the Czechoslovakian-Hungarian border. Before Dubcek departed, Kadar asked him, “Do you know what kind of people you are dealing with?” When Dubcek did not answer, Kadar said, “They are animals.”

This is how the free world felt about the Soviets when it learned that a Korean 747 jetliner had been hit by a Russian rocket, killing 269 defenseless civilians. Demands for reprisals were insistent and sweeping. Certain conservatives in the United States urged the President to end all commerce with the Soviets, break off arms talks at Geneva and Vienna, cancel the Shultz-Gromyko meeting in Madrid, rescind wheat and technology deals, nationalize U.S. loans to Soviet satellite states, expel Russian diplomats and KGB agents (together totaling about 150) from their walled fortress in Washington. The pressure on Mr. Reagan was immense. The fury peaked over the Labor Day weekend.

JM

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John McLaughlin

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In August of 1968, about three days before the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia, Alexander Dubcek, the First Secretary of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party, met with Janos Kadar, the First Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party, whom the Soviets had placed in power in 1956. The meeting took place at a town on the Czechoslovakian-Hungarian border. Before Dubcek departed, Kadar asked him, “Do you know what kind of people you are dealing with?” When Dubcek did not answer, Kadar said, “They are animals.”

This is how the free world felt about the Soviets when it learned that a Korean 747 jetliner had been hit by a Russian rocket, killing 269 defenseless civilians. Demands for reprisals were insistent and sweeping. Certain conservatives in the United States urged the President to end all commerce with the Soviets, break off arms talks at Geneva and Vienna, cancel the Shultz-Gromyko meeting in Madrid, rescind wheat and technology deals, nationalize U.S. loans to Soviet satellite states, expel Russian diplomats and KGB agents (together totaling about 150) from their walled fortress in Washington. The pressure on Mr. Reagan was immense. The fury peaked over the Labor Day weekend.