Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance is planning on delivering the Crown of St. Stephen to the Hungarian Communist regime about the first of December.
St. Stephen’s Crown is the oldest Christian symbol of freedom and authority in Europe. A gift from Pope Sylvester II, it was used to crown Stephen I as King of Hungary on Christmas Day in the year 1000. For centuries, this most sacred of all Hungarian relics was kept under the constant watch of a Crown Guard.
In order to keep the Crown out of the hands of advancing Russian armies in the closing months of World War II, Hungarian patriots entrusted it to American troops under General George Patton. The Hungarians wanted and intended the Crown to remain safely in America until Hungary is free again.
The Crown is a national treasure of immense historic and symbolic significance to Hungarians and Hungarian Americans who believe that government power is inherent in the Crown. To many Hungarians, the Crown is the symbol that Hungary will always be a Christian nation.
In his book 1000 Years of Hungary, Hungarian historian Emil Lengyel explains why St. Stephen’s Crown is so important. The Crown is not merely a symbol, he says, but part of the Hungarian mystique. Hungarian doctrine attributes the powers of legitimate sovereignty to the Holy Crown.
Since the Crown has been in American custody, it has been kept with U.S. gold reserves in the vaults at Fort Knox. Free Hungarians have remained adamant in their determination that the Crown NOT be turned over to the Communists who now occupy Hungary with Soviet troops.
In 1970 President Richard Nixon solemnly promised Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty, who was then living in the U.S. embassy in Budapest, that St. Stephen’s Crown would not be handed over to the Communists. This same policy was adhered to by Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Ford.
The argument given by the State Department for its strange reversal of longtime U.S. policy is that Premier Janos Kadar is “the most internally liberal of the East European countries allied to the Soviet Union.” The turnover of the Crown is said to be the prelude to granting “most-favored nation” trade privileges to the Hungarian Communists.
The State Department announcement was made on the 21st anniversary of Kadar’s coming to power in 1956. If the young aides in the Carter Administration are too young to remember the circumstances, they could learn some relevant history by reading James Michener’s The Bridge at Andau.
After Hungary revolted in 1956 and threw off the repressive rule of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev sent in tanks and troops to crush the Hungarian Freedom Fighters. The hideous and inhumane events that accompanied the invasion stirred the conscience of the whole world.
To reestablish the iron rule of the Kremlin over Hungary, the Soviets installed Janos Kadar as their puppet Communist ruler. Nothing has changed in 21 years to exonerate Kadar or his regime.
The bloody Communist dictators, even when they are in total de facto control of a nation, always yearn for the mantle of de jure legitimacy. They covet the evidences of respectability including diplomatic recognition, the protocol of embassies and consulates, membership in the United Nations, summit conferences, and cultural exchanges.
The Communists’ passion for legitimacy is an attempt to gloss over the fact that they acquire and hold power by murder, forced labor, the knock on the door in the night, deceit, trickery, repudiation of agreements, and naked aggression.
This is why the Communists have a consuming lust to possess the Crown of St. Stephen. To gratify their passion would be a betrayal of the Hungarian people.
