Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968

Speech by Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu

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a series aboutNicolae Ceaușescu

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Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968 was a public address by Nicolae Ceaușescu, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and President of the State Council of Romania, strongly condemning the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. On the night of 20–21 August 1968, five Warsaw Pact nations (the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, and Poland) invaded Czechoslovakia in an effort to quell the reformist ideology of Alexander Dubček, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

On 21 August, in what became one of his most famous speeches, Ceaușescu boldly denounced the invasion in a public address before 100,000 people in Palace Square in Bucharest, and he declared that it was a "grave error and constituted a serious danger to peace in Europe and for the prospects of world socialism". His address was perceived as a bold gesture of disobedience to the Soviet Union both at home and abroad. The speech was part of the Romanian government's efforts since 1956 to assert its independence from Moscow.

Ceaușescu's response consolidated Romania's independent voice in the next two decades, especially since Ceaușescu encouraged the population to take up arms to meet any similar maneuver in the country. He received an enthusiastic initial response, with many people being willing to enroll in the newly-formed paramilitary Patriotic Guards.

Threat of a Soviet Invasion

As Moscow wasn't happy about this speech, and with Brezhnev fearing that a situation like in Czechoslovakia may happen, the Soviet response was unclear. But as the Ceaușescu speech showed the West that Romania was the only socialist state in Eastern Europe not in the Soviet Bloc, the United States along with China declared their support for Romania, thus hindering the Soviet Bloc launching an invasion. But even after this, Brezhnev still criticized Nicolae Ceaușescu’s actions.

References

Conflicted Memories: Europeanizing Contemporary Histories, edited by Konrad H. Jarausch, Thomas Lindenberger, p. 43
Apoteoza lui Ceaușescu – 21 august 1968

External links

(in Romanian) Excerpts of Ceaușescu's 1968 speech (with English subtitles) Archived 2016-06-10 at the Wayback Machine

v t e Protests of 1968
Movements	1968–69 Japanese university protests Zenkyōtō 1968 movement in Italy 1968 movement in Pakistan Civil Rights Movement Anti-nuclear movement Black Consciousness Movement Black power movement Black Power Revolution Chicano Movement Cultural Revolution Gay liberation Hippie movement Human rights movement in the Soviet Union Mexican Movement of 1968 Movement of 22 March Northern Ireland civil rights movement Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War Red Power movement Sexual revolution The Troubles West German student movement Women's liberation movement
Events	1968 Democratic National Convention protests "The whole world is watching" 1968 Polish political crisis 1968 protests in Egypt 1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia 1968 Miami riot 1968 Red Square demonstration 1968 uprising in Senegal Båstad riots Battle of Valle Giulia Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968 Central Park be-ins Columbia University protests of 1968 Delano grape strike East L.A. walkouts King assassination riots Mafeje affair March of the One Hundred Thousand May 1968 in France Memphis sanitation strike Miss America protest Occupation of the Student Union Building Poor People's Campaign Prague Spring Presidio mutiny Rodney riots Shinjuku riot Silence March Takeover of Vanha Third World Liberation Front strikes of 1968 Tlatelolco massacre
Related	1968 Summer Olympics Anti-capitalism Black power Counterculture of the 1960s Flower power Free love Hippie Antisemitism in Poland Hot Autumn New Left Racism in the United States School discipline Second-wave feminism Years of Lead (Italy) Morocco Segregation in Northern Ireland Student activism Vietnam War Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

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