Area Handbook for Czechoslovakia 1972 (DA Pam 550-158)
Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972. First Edition [stated] Presumed first printing. Hardcover. xiv, 321, [1] pages. Illustrations. Tables. Bibliography. Glossary. Index. The Area Handbook for Czechoslovakia (1972), designated DA Pam 550-158, provides an interdisciplinary analysis of the island nation's social, political, economic, and military structures during a period of post-independence tension. Prepared by Foreign Area Studies of The American University, the volume details the ethnic and religious divisions between Greek and Turkish Cypriots alongside the island's geopolitical importance in the Eastern Mediterranean. This volume is one of a series of handbooks prepared by Foreign Area Studies (FAS) of the American University, designed to be useful to military and other personnel who need a convenient compilation of basic facts about the social, economic, political and military institutions and practices of various countries. The emphasis is on objectives descriptions on the nation's present society emphasis is on objective description of the nation's then present society and the kinds of possible or probable changes that might be expected in the future. The handbooks seek to present as full and as balanced an integrated exposition as limitations on space and research time permit. From the title page: "Research and writing were completed September 1971." The Area Handbook for Czechoslovakia (1972) offers a deeply researched diagnostic analysis of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic during a critical juncture of Cold War consolidation. Published by the U.S. Government Printing Office, the text focuses heavily on the institutional realignment that followed the crushed 1968 liberalization movements. It breaks down the societal structures of Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia, details the command economy under Soviet-aligned planning, and evaluates the operational status of the Czechoslovak People's Army within the Warsaw Pact framework. Czechoslovakia was a country in Central Europe. The country was bordered by Austria and Hungary to the south, Germany[c] to the west and northwest, Poland to the northeast, and Ukraine[d] to the southeast. Czechoslovakia had a hilly and mostly mountainous landscape that covered an area of 49,385 sq. miles with a mostly temperate continental and oceanic climate. The capital and largest city was Prague; other major cities and urban areas include Brno, Ostrava, Plze , Liberec, Bratislava and Košice. Championed by nationalists and first presidents Tomáš Masaryk and Edvard Beneš, Czechoslovakia declared independence in 1918 amid the dissolution of Austria-Hungary and had its sovereignty affirmed in the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Following the Munich Agreement in 1938, the Sudetenland was annexed by Nazi Germany while the Second Czechoslovak Republic was formed as a client state. In 1939, the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed while the Slovak Republic was administered separately and Carpathian Ruthenia was annexed by Hungary. Although the state thus ceased to exist, following the outbreak of World War II, Beneš formed a government-in-exile that was recognized by the Allies. Following liberation by the Red Army in 1944 and 1945, Czechoslovakia was re-established under its pre-1938 borders, with the exception of Carpathian Ruthenia, which became part of the Ukrainian SSR (a republic of the Soviet Union). The Communist Party seized power in a coup in 1948 and afterward, Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc with a planned economy. Its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949 and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of 1955. A period of political liberalization in 1968, the Prague Spring, ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by other Warsaw Pact countries, invaded Czechoslovakia. In 1989, as Marxist–Leninist governments and communism were ending all over Central and Eastern Europe, Czechoslovaks peacefully deposed their communist government during the Velvet Revolution, which began on 17 November 1989 and ended 11 days later on 28 November when all of the top Communist leaders and the Communist party itself resigned. On 31 December 1992, Czechoslovakia split peacefully into the two sovereign states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Country Study, Physical Environment, Social System, Religion, Government Structure, Political System, Foreign Relations, Economic System, Internal Security, External Security, Military Forces, Dissidents, Demographics, Public Information, Agriculture
[Book #91958]
Price: $100.00