UCSB Hist 133C, L 14:
East and West in the 1960s
by Laurence Christian, Feb. 6, 2004

• Developing socialism in the 1960s
  • 6th Congress of the SED, 1963
  • Prague Spring, 1968
  • Brezhnev Doctrine, 1968
• Western responses:
  • Hallstein Doctrine, 1955-1969
  • Ostpolitik, 1970-1989

• ‘Principles for the New Economic System of Planning and Management of National Economy.’
• scientifically based leadership in the economy
• scientifically grounded central state planning for long term
• comprehensive use of material interest in the shape of consistent system of economic levers.

Prague Spring, 1968

Tanks from several Eastern bloc countries, including East Germany, were used to put down the "Prague Spring" in August 1968.

Comment Following the Prague Revolution

Leonid Brezhnev, Communist Party President:
"From a Marxist point of view, the norms of law, including the norms of mutual relations of the socialist countries, cannot be interpreted narrowly, formally, and in isolation from the general context of class struggle in the modern world. The socialist countries resolutely come out against the exporting and importing of counterrevolution."

Western Responses

• Hallstein Doctrine, 1955-1969
• Brandt's Ostpolitik, 1970-1989

• From the film "The Promise," describe one piece of evidence that socialism was (or was not) making progress during the 1960s

OR

• Give one piece of evidence that West Germany was not (or was) a "bed of roses" for Sophie in the 1960s