The tragic news fromCzechoslovakia shocks the conscience of the world. The Soviet Union and its allies have invaded a defenseless country to stamp out a resurgence of ordinary human freedom. It is a sad commentary on the communist mind, that a sign of liberty inCzechoslovakia is deemed a fundamental threat to the security of the Soviet system. Theaction of the Warsaw Pact allies is in flat violation of the United Nations charter. We are consulting urgently with others to consider what steps should be undertaken in the United Nations. Meanwhile, in the name of mankind's hope for peace, I call on the Soviet Union and its associates to withdraw their troops fromCzechoslovakia.
1981 April 5, Theodore Solotaroff, “REVIVING THE ANCIENT ART OF EXECUTION”, inThe New York Times[2], archived fromthe original on22 September 2025:
De Maistre's words fall easily and appropriately into place in Pavel Kohout's new novel about a state and a time not unlike that of his nativeCzechoslovakia just after the reimposition of Communist law and order in the late 1960's.
