APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110010-2
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FIGURE 1. Territorial changes in Czechoslovakia, 1937-1973 (U/OU)
slovakia, a model of Western democracy during the interwar years, to regain a strong sense of national purpose after World War II. It is perhaps representative, too, of the atmosphere in which the country succumbed in 1948 to a bloodless Communist coup and, over the following decade, developed into a model Soviet satellite, docile and unquestioning in its loyalty to Moscow.
The country's high degree of economic development, its proximity and strategic importance to the U.S.S.R., and its vulnerable liberal political system were among the factors which made Czechoslovakia an attractive target for postwar Soviet expansionism. From 1945 to the coup in 1948, the leaders of major non-Communist political factions pursued conciliatory tactics towards the Communists, with whom they formed a coalition government. This first postwar government, its confidence in the Western powers impaired by the memory of Munich, committed itself to internal policies favored by the Communists and to a foreign policy line sympathetic to Soviet interests. The Soviet Union at this time was still greatly admired by most Czechoslovaks because of its role in the war and the fact that in 1938 it had been the only power to declare its support of Czechoslovakia. In addition, many Czechoslovak leaders had a utopian vision of
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110010-2
