Another important variable is the pace and completeness of the withdrawal of Soviet occupation forces from Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

From the time I was a child, my mother told me about growing up in the newly-independent Czechoslovakia led by President Masaryk, about the horror of the Nazi occupation, and about the hopes for a new beginning after the war, only to have the Communists take over.

WHITEHOUSE: Letter from Prague: Every Day a Miracle