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Czechoslovakia FOREIGN RELATIONS
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
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