Czechoslovakia Table of Contents
Nowhere is the Soviet Union's overwhelming influence on Czechoslovakia more evident than in foreign relations. Since as far back as 1947, when the Klement Gottwald cabinet succumbed to Soviet pressure and withdrew its announced participation in the Marshall Plan, Czechoslovakia has followed Moscow's lead in international affairs. Unlike the communist regimes in Yugoslavia and Romania, no Czechoslovak regime since 1948 has deviated significantly from Soviet foreign policy. Even the Dubcek government, though seeking reform in economic and domestic political matters, emphasized during its abbreviated existence that it did not advocate a significant change in its foreign policy tenets and alliances.
In the late 1980s, Czechoslovakia's alliances with the Soviet Union and other East European communist states remained the dominant factor influencing Czechoslovak foreign policy. The Husak regime showed little foreign policy initiative, opting instead to echo the Soviet position on every major issue, as it had done for eighteen years. Czechoslovakia's conduct of foreign policy reflected its determination to maintain at all costs the political, economic, and military unity of the socialist bloc.
Data as of August 1987