TASS announcement 'Occupation Progress', Moscow radio, 22 Aug 1968 (FBIS transcript)

TASS announcement 'Occupation Progress', Moscow radio, 22 Aug 1968 (FBIS transcript)

FBIS monitor's page for a TASS announcement broadcast in English from Moscow on the second day of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. The text calls the troops 'allied' and their entry 'measures taken in defense of socialist gains', cites 'numerous meetings, resolutions, and letters' as 'complete and total approval', and labels opponents 'counterrevolutionary', 'antisocialist' and 'bankrupt politicians'.

Date
August 22, 1968
Period
Cold War
Made by
TASS (Soviet state news agency), Moscow TASS International Service; transcribed by the U.S. Foreign Broadcast Information Service
Medium
Broadcast
Issuer type
State
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Rights
Public domain (U.S. government work, FBIS/CIA; CC0 on Internet Archive)
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (CIA), via Internet Archive; copy held by the LBJ Presidential Library.

Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

FBIS 199 [handwritten circled mark, illegible]
TASS ON OCCUPATION PROGRESS
MOSCOW TASS INTERNATIONAL SERVICE IN ENGLISH 1916 GMT 22 AUG 68 L
(TASS ANNOUNCEMENT)
(TEXT) MOSCOW--THE NUMEROUS MEETINGS, RESOLUTIONS, AND LETTERS BY WORKING PEOPLE OF THE SOVIET UNION AND OTHER SOCIALIST COUNTRIES TESTIFY TO A COMPLETE AND TOTAL APPROVAL AND SUPPORT OF THE MEASURES TAKEN IN DEFENSE OF SOCIALIST GAINS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA. THESE MEASURES HAVE BEEN SUPPORTED AND SOLIDARIZED WITH BY MANY COMMUNIST AND WORKERS PARTIES, BY WORKING PEOPLE AND PROGRESSIVE FORCES.
SOME STATESMEN OF SEVERAL BOURGEOIS COUNTRIES ARE BEGINNING TO TAKE A REALISTIC POSITION. OF COURSE, THE IMPERIALIST QUARTERS, WHICH ARE STAKING ON TEARING CZECHOSLOVAKIA AWAY FROM THE COMMUNITY OF SOCIALIST STATES, CANNOT PUT UP WITH THE COLLAPSE OF THEIR HOPES. THEY ARE CONTINUING TO CREATE AROUND THE CZECHOSLOVAK EVENTS AN ATMOSPHERE OF TENSION AND POLITICAL HYSTERIA. THIS ESPECIALLY CONCERNS THE RULING QUARTERS OF BONN. THEY ARE RAGING, INVOLUNTARILY GIVING AWAY THEIR INTENTIONS CONNECTED WITH THE ACTIVITIES OF COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY FORCES IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA.
THROUGHOUT 22 AUGUST, THE SITUATION IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA WAS ON THE WHOLE CALM. NEVERTHELESS, ANTISOCIALIST FORCES IN PRAGUE CONTINUED THEIR SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES, TRYING TO SPREAD TENSION AND UNCERTAINTY AMONG THE POPULATION. CONTINUED USE FOR THESE PURPOSES IS MADE OF CLANESTINE RADIO BROADCASTS. COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY LEAFLETS ARE BEING PRINTED. INCENDIARY POSTERS CONTAINING SLANDEROUS ATTACKS ON PROMINENT CZECHOSLOVAK PARTY AND GOVERNMENT LEADERS, AS WELL AS ON ALLIED TROOPS, HAVE BEEN PASTED UP IN SOME PARTS OF PRAGUE. CARS WITH LOUDSPEAKERS TRANSMITTING CLANDESTINE RADIO BROADCASTS HAVE APPEARED IN THE STREETS.
UNDERGROUND RADIO STATIONS AND ILLEGAL PUBLICATIONS AS WELL AS WESTERN PROPAGANDA CENTERS ARE SPREADING THE MOST LOW-GRADE FALSIFICATIONS. CERTAIN OFFICIALS ARE RENDERING THEM DIRECT SERVICE IN THIS. THUS, O. SIK, J. HAJEK, F. VLASAK, AND S. GASPARIK ANNOUNCED THAT THEY WOULD DISCHARGE GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS "OUTSIDE CZECHOSLOVAK TERRITORY," WHICH, AS A MATTER OF FACT, NOBODY HAD AUTHORIZED THEM TO DO.
EVERYBODY WHO PRIZES THE CAUSE OF SOCILISM IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA WILL WAIVE THE CLAIMS OF BANKRUPT POLITICIANS AND THOSE WHO BACK THEM TO SPEAK IN THE NAME OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK SOCIALIST REPUBLIC.
ACCORDING TO THE REPORTS COMING FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA, THE SERVICEMEN OF THE ALLIED ARMIES ARE DISPLAYING RESTRAINT IN A DIFFICULT SITUATION, HELPING WITH HONOR, DIGNITY, AND A FINE SENSE OF DUTY, THE WORKING PEOPLE AND BROTHERS IN CLASS--THE WORKING PEOPLE OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA--TO UPHOLD THE CAUSE OF SOCIALISM AND DO AWAY WITH THE THREAT TO THE SECURITY AND SOVEREIGNTY OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK SOCIALIST REPUBLIC.
IT CAN OFTEN BE SEEN IN THE STREETS AND SQUARES OF TOWNS AND VILLAGES HOW OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE ALLIED TROOPS CARRY ON FRIENDLY TALKS WITH THE POPULATION, REPLY TO NUMEROUS QUESTIONS, HELP THEM TO ASSESS CORRECTLY THE POLITICAL SITUATION, AND EXPLAIN THE NOBLE GOALS PURSUED BY THESE TROOPS.
22 AUG 2011Z BJ/RH
COPY LBJ LIBRARY [stamp in right margin; a partly cut-off copier line at the foot is illegible]

English throughout, in FBIS teletype capitals, and already the monitor's transcript of the broadcast, so no translation is given. The spellings 'CLANESTINE' and 'SOCILISM' are as printed. The image is the archive PDF page rendered at 110 dpi.