Reaction of Western powers to the intervention of Warsaw Pact troops in Czechoslovakia in 1968

This bachelor's thesis focuses on analyzing the reactions of Western powers (the United States, France, and Great Britain) to the military intervention of five Warsaw Pact states in Czechoslovakia in August 1968. The aim of the thesis is to identify the decisive factors that influenced the Western stance and to examine the differences among individual reactions, with a particular focus on the role of détente policy and the specific position of Czechoslovakia within the Eastern Bloc. The work employs a qualitative methodology of comparative case study, based on the analysis of primary and secondary historical sources. The first part of the thesis deals with defining theoretical concepts such as the Cold War, bipolarity, and realism, and places Czechoslovakia in the context of the Cold War, describing its satellite status and international anchoring after 1945. It further depicts the international events of the 1960s that preceded the crisis, including the reform process of the Prague Spring and the course of the August intervention. The second part of the thesis elaborates in detail on the immediate reactions of Western powers, the attitudes of Western European communist parties, and media coverage of the events, while identifying and analyzing the determining factors. The concluding chapter synthesizes and compares findings from previous sections, provides an answer to the research question with the application of realist theory and détente policy, and offers possibilities for further research.