This is a sticky issue. Yes, the lessons of Hungary probably weighed heavy in their collective memory...but how much did they know? Yeah, sure, Budapest was surrounded by an iron ring of Soviet Tanks and the workers' resistance utterly smahsed, but did the Czechs know that the Soviet tank crews weren't told where they were headed? According to Andy Anderson's 'Hungary 1956', some of Soviet troops thought they were in East Germany fighting a western invasion! As I understand it, some Soviet troops also turned their weapons and tanks over to the insurgent workers...to combat those dangers, Soviet officers explicitly barred contact between Soviet soldiers and Hungarian workers..
What I'm getting at is this: While the Czechs can't be faulted for what they did, there chances of victory probably weren't that bad, IF Soviet units were to defect to their side...
"Working class parties put up as their goal the conquest of political power, thereby to govern in the interest of the workers, and especially to abolish capitalism. They assert themselves as the advance guard of the working class, its most clear-sighted part, capable of leading the uninstructed majority of the class, acting in its name as its representative. They pretend to be able to liberate the workers from exploitation. An exploited class, however, cannot be liberated by simply voting and bringing into power a group of new governors. A political party cannot bring freedom, but, when it wins, only new forms of domination. Freedom can be won by the working masses only through their own organised action..." - Anton Pannekoek
