page_title: Ludvík Svoboda
section_title: Presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Ludvík Svoboda / Presidency
caption_attribution_description: English: Ludvík Svoboda (President of Czechoslovakia, 1968 – 1975) on right, and Josef Smrkovský Čeština: Ludvík Svoboda, prezident Československa v letech 1968-1975 s Josefem Smrkovským, funkcionář KSČ během Pražského jara 1968.
context_page_description: Ludvík Svoboda was a Czechoslovak general and politician. He fought in both World Wars, for which he was regarded as a national hero, and he later served as President of Czechoslovakia from 1968 to 1975.
context_section_description: After the ending of the Antonín Novotný regime, in the period known as the Prague Spring, Svoboda was elected President of Czechoslovakia on 30 March 1968, on the recommendation of Alexander Dubček, the First Secretary. He was an acceptable candidate for both Czechs and Slovaks, and as a war hero and a victim of the purges of the early 1950s, he enjoyed a very high esteem among the population.
  Svoboda then gave a mild consent to the reform process of the new Party leadership until the Warsaw Pact intervention in August 1968. Horrified at his experiences in two world wars, he signed an order preventing the Czechoslovak Army from getting involved with the invading Warsaw Pact troops. He traveled to Moscow in order to secure the release of Dubček and the other reform leaders, who had been kidnapped by the invading forces. However, when Svoboda arrived, Leonid Brezhnev demanded that he appoint a "peasant-workers' government" in order to give credence to the planned official line—that hardliners in the KSČ (Czechoslovak Communist Party) had themselves requested the invasion. Svoboda not only refused, but threatened to put a bullet into his head in the presence of Brezhnev unless Dubček and the other reformists were released.
  Nevertheless, Svoboda could do nothing to prevent Brezhnev from forcing the Czechoslovak representatives to sign the notorious Moscow protocols, which meant a factual capitulation as they were kept secret and provided the Warsaw Pact armies with a factual licence to a "temporary stay" (as it was called later at an October parliamentary session) in Czechoslovakia. The protocols also obliged the Party leadership to promote political, cultural and other changes to stop the reform process. Svoboda also supported Minister of Defence Martin Dzúr, who ordered the Czechoslovak army to not show any resistance. Given the public outrage and resistance, Svoboda's arbitrary action was in fact in accord with Brezhnev's intent.
caption: Josef Smrkovský & Ludvík Svoboda
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