Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Prague Spring's Dubcek dies at 70 Date: Sun, 8 Nov 92 15:50:37 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Prague Spring's Dubcek dies at 70 \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT PRAGUE PRAGUE (AP) - Alexander Dubcek, 70, the former Communist leader whose failed attempt to loosen the party's tight grip on his nation became known as the Prague Spring, died yesterday. Mr. Dubcek, who had been hospitalized since a car accident Sept. 1, died at Homolse Hospital from "failure of vital organs," the official state news agency CSTK quoted Health Minister Robert Lom as saying. Mr. Dubcek had been listed in critical condition for two weeks. He suffered a broken pelvis and spine when his chauffeured BMW skidded off a rain-slicked highway 50 miles southeast of Prague and plunged into a gorge. Mr. Dubcek's life was one of doomed ideals and failed aspirations. He joined the Communist Party at 18 and was wounded twice as a partisan against the Nazis in World War II. He rose to national party chief in 1968 as the successor to hard-liner Antonin Novotny. His charm and openness contrasted sharply with the uniformity of his predecessors. Popular magazines featured cover photos of Mr. Dubcek surrounded by student revolutionaries and pop stars. Mr. Dubcek wanted to create "socialism with a human face" and sought to find a "third way" between capitalism and socialism. His rise triggered six months of debate and reform in 1968 that came to be known as the Prague Spring. But on Aug. 21, 1968, a Soviet-led invasion by five Warsaw Pact states crushed the reforms and ushered in two more decades of communism. Mr. Dubcek lived in virtual seclusion at his home in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, until the 1989 Velvet Revolution against communism. After a brief bid for the presidency in late 1989, which he lost to Vaclav Havel, Mr. Dubcek became the largely symbolic president of parliament. Later he joined and headed Slovakia's Social Democrats. The party failed to clear the 5 percent hurdle in June's elections for seats in the regional parliament and won only five seats in the federal legislature. Mr. Dubcek's political return coincided with Slovakia's quest for more autonomy from Prague, but he rejected that effort. He declined offers from nationalists to serve as the Slovak figurehead for the breakup. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM