Into the inner courtyard of Prague's Hradcany Castle one morning last week rumbled a long cavalcade of black Tatra limousines. From them stepped Party First Secretary Alexander Dubcek, the ministers of his regime and 277 members of the National Assembly. Only a few months ago, these men had gathered in the historic castle to enact the reforms that started Czechoslovakia on its brief but exhilarating attempt to reconcile Communism with human freedoms. Now, under the threat of Soviet invaders, they came to dismantle their own democracy.
Total Supremacy. Assembling in the castle's...