p After the annexation of Austria, the German General Staff got down, under instructions from Hitler, to laying the ground for the the seizure of Czechoslovakia ( OperaLion “Griin”). In the military sense, the capture of Czechoslovakia was an uneasy task, however. Germany had not yet completed her preparations for a major war. At the same time, the Czechoslovak Army was rightfully considered one of the best armies in capitalist Europe in terms of its equipment and combat training. A fortified belt, patterned after the Maginot Line, had been installed in those regions of Czechoslovakia which bordered on Germany.

p Besides, Czechoslovakia had treaties of mutual assistance with the two major powers of Europe—the USSR and France. For thai reason, the Nazi foreign service found an international isolation (neutralising) of Czechoslovakia to be its most important objective. Considering that she was a connecting link between various alliances (like the Little Entente), created by France during the inter-war period, the Nazis counted on getting all those alliances dismantled by neutralising Czechoslovakia. Both for the sake of carrying out their operation “Griin” and for facilitating the implementation of other aggressive plans, the Nazis were still pressing for the international isolation of the Soviet Union.^^51^^

The "Fifth Column" of the Nazis in Czechoslovakia— their agents among the Sudeten Germans—was charged with Ihe mission of blowing the nation up from inside so as to reduce its ability to resist. On March 28, 1938, Hitler gave his instructions to Henlein, the fiihrer of the Sudeten 156 German fascists, to get more active and confront the government of Czechoslovakia with demands that would be clearly unacceptable to it. ^^55^^