Polish Armed Forces government to resettle ethnicities immediately after the war (Operation Vistula), and to violently suppress opposition several times, during the Poznań 1956 protests, the Polish 1970 protests, and during Martial law in Poland in 1981–1982. The LWP also took part in the suppressing of the 1968 democratization process of Czechoslovakia, commonly known as the Prague Spring. That same year Marshal of Poland Marian Spychalski was asked to replace Edward Ochab as chairman of the Council of State, and General Wojciech Jaruzelski, at that time the Chief of the General Staff, was named to replace him. Michta argues that Jaruzelski, as a
Wojciech Jaruzelski organised his own coup by proclaiming martial law. A Military Council of National Salvation was formed, with Jaruzelski as chairman. A BBC News profile of Jaruzelski contends that the establishment of martial law was "an attempt to suppress the Solidarity movement." According to Jaruzelski, martial law was necessary to avoid a Soviet invasion. In a May 1992 interview with "Der Spiegel", Jaruzelski said: "Given the strategic logic of the time, I probably would have acted the same way if I had been a Soviet general. At that time, Soviet political and strategic interests were threatened." However, at a press conference