The Soviet Union had been politically confronted following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. In addition, it had lost its grip on the communist parties of the West (see Eurocommunism) and its ideological differences with China had polarized the worldwide communist movement between the leadership of Moscow and Beijing in 1969. The Soviet leadership realized that none of these problems could be resolved by explaining or patching up relations, but that the Soviet Union could only improve its position by opening a new diplomatic front. In April 1969, therefore, it proposed the organization of a European Security Conference in the same way as it had done in 1954.Coral Bell, The Diplomacy of Detente: The Kissinger Era (1977).Tarkka, Jukka – Tiitta, Allan: Itsenäinen Suomi: seitsemän vuosikymmentä kansakunnan elämästä, s. 249. Helsinki: Otava, 1987.
