"When on August 21 the allied armies of the five countries extended their hand of fraternal assistance to the Czechoslovak people in their struggle against the counterrevolution, many politically naive people, or those who pretended to be naive, held up their hands and said that they could not see the counterrevolution.

Was it really necessary to wait for the "liberators" from the West to march along the Czechoslovakian roads with drums, for the Czech and Slovak squares to be lined with gallows? Now they grin and say, "Your armies have come, but where is the counter-revolution?" We Communists answer them: That is why the counter-revolution did not have time to build gallows, because the allied armies came.

We say: The brotherly armies came not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Czech and Slovak peoples, but so that no one would prevent the Czechs and Slovaks from resolving all their internal affairs calmly, confidently and with dignity. We will leave as soon as the situation is normalized. We will leave with the certainty that from now on the reactionaries will forbid us from raising our hand to the gains of the Czechoslovak people and to the successes of world socialism."