-CONFJDENl IAL• 
step back at Cierna, .to give the s~gnal yesterday to crush the Czeohoslovaks? 
4. It may ·be some time before we can answer this question with any assurance. On the strength of what we know now, .the most likely explanation appears to be that,. . under the· impact of internal pressures within the leadership and of importuningfrom its anxious allies in Eastern Europe, .the' so­viet decision at Cierna to give Dubcek and company more time became unravelled. This would suppose--... as there seems some reason to suppose--that the 
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Soviet politburo when it went to Cierna was divided