iv the Soviet regime appears to be undergoing a criais of confidence at home as a result of its vacillating and ineffectual handling of the Czech problem, and, if heads do not roll eventually as a direct result of the Cienia decisions, they may very well roll at sane later date J.n co?Ulection with further developnents which stem from these decisions -2 ­ The burden of this frenetic activity has been borne by the ranking triumvirate, Party leader Brezhnev, Premier Kosygin, and President Podgorny. There is good evidence that the workload and tensions engendered adversely affected the health of Brezhnev, or at least momentarily broke down his stamina. He became indisposed at the time of Ulbricht's visit to Moscow at the end of May and was publicly inactive for aboµt three weeks. It is not certain whether his reported one-half day indisposition during the Cierna talks with the Czechoslovaks was wholly physical or partly a diplomatic illness. But in any case, he had been showing definite signs of fatigue. Regime Vacillation and Lower-Echelon Pressures The Soviet leaders' initial efforts in January-March to evolve a policy toward Czechoslovakia through top-level contacts with the Czechs Soviet Participants Kosygin Brezhnev Podgornyy Shelest Katushev Brezhnev Podgornyy Shelest Katushev Kosygin Brezhnev Kosygin Podgornyy Shelest Katushev CPSU Central Committee Kosygin Katushev CPSU Politburo Podgornyy CPSU Politburo Date July 10 July 12 July 13 July 14 July 16 July 17 July 18 July 18 July 19 July 19 July 22 -vi ­ Related to CzechoWith Czechoslovaks scheduled to end July 13 PM, not next morning Departed Moscow by rail for Warsaw meeting of July 14-15 Arrived in Warsaw Flew into Warsaw Arrived Moscow from Warsaw Brezhnev reported to Plenum on Warsaw meeting; joint letter to CSSR published Received CSSR CEMA representative Hamouz Received CSSR Ambassador Koucky Letter to CSSR proposing Bilateral Summit meeting in Moscow, Kiev, L'vov on July 22 or 23 Podgornyy gave warning speech to Czechs at RSFSR Supreme Soviet Politburo to meet Czecho Presidium in CSSR rt 0 ::r (') m N