British policy towards Eastern Europe and the impact of the ‘Prague Spring’, 1964–68

Abstract

This article analyzes Britain's role in East–West diplomacy during the mid-to-late 1960s, with particular reference to London's response to the Czechoslovak communist regime's abortive efforts at internal liberalization in 1968. British officials presumed that the USSR's East European clients were undergoing a process of internal ‘evolution’, and were adopting more autonomous domestic policies. Like other Western countries, Britain responded to the ‘Prague Spring’ with caution, avoiding any action which could provoke Soviet hostility and jeopardize détente. London also failed to predict the Warsaw Pact's invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. After briefly expressing outrage at the suppression of the ‘Prague Spring’, Britain and other Western powers soon reverted to a ‘business as usual’ approach to East–West relations, and continued to pursue policies intended to develop détente.