Happiness in Czechoslovakia

On the morning of August 28, 1968, I left my Washington home and headed by car for the seaside resort of Rehoboth, Maryland. I remember starting out in high spirits: there was not a cloud in the sky, and I was looking forward to sun and ocean.

Halfway, I switched on the radio for the news. It was grim: a Czechoslovak delegation, led by President Ludvik Svoboda and including the Soviet flunkeys Vasil Bilak and Milos Jakes had just returned from Moscow. With them were Aleksander Dubcek a...