Zpráva Jiřího S. Hájka o jeho diplomatické aktivitě po 21. srpnu 1968

This materials provides a commented printing of a previously unpublished secret report by ČSSR Minister for Foreign Affairs during the Prague Spring period of 1968, Jiří S Hájek, who prepared it for the needs of the ministry heads (and also party circles) following his return to Prague from his dramatic trip to New York and Geneva after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the armies of the Warsaw Pact. When the invasion occurred on 21 August, Hájek was in Yugoslavia on a holiday, as were three other members of O Černík’s government. Following the occupation, and also thanks to the anti-occupation stance of the Central Committee and most of the Prague government, he travelled via Vienna to New York where the UN Security Council had been convened. Here, as early as 21 August, the ČSSR’s provisional delegate to the UN, J Mužík, had spoken out against the occupation. Upon his arrival in New York on 24 August, Minister Hájek supported this stance, thus significantly helping to dismantle the Soviet lies that it was the Czechoslovak government which had invited the armies of the Warsaw Pact to its country. At the same time, however, he stressed that the ČSSR would remain an ally of the USSR. In subsequent days, Hájek no longer pursued further discussions of the Czechoslovak cause in the Council; on the contrary, in the spirit of the instructions of President L Svoboda (who was at the time holding negotiations with Brezhnev on dealing with the crisis further) he left New York and travelled to Geneva for UN negotiations on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. From there, he returned to Prague at the beginning of September.