View of soviet tanks in
Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1968.

1968 Continued
The public in the United States and the West, upset by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, pressure IREX to suspend its exchange agreements with the USSR. However, IREX continues its programs, citing its founding documents which state that IREX's primary objective is "to insulate intellectual exchange from the exigencies of international politics and to establish its independence from any sources of influence other than those devoted to the advancement of knowledge."