Why didn't the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia use the military to suppress the protests during the Velvet Revolution?

Upvote:8

Communism has always been buttressed by force.

In Eastern Europe it was either actual Soviet troops (Germany-1953, Hungary-1956, Czechoslovakia-1968) or the imminent credible threat thereof (Poland-1980). Local troops has never been particularly reliable.

You need to look at the context. Communism was crumbling everywhere. By 1989, Gorbachev made it clear that USSR will not intervene, and it was perfectly clear that the communist power could not be kept. The choice was not "keep power by force" vs "relinquish power" but "relinquish power peacefully" or "be forced out".

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Source: stackoverflow.com

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