Thirty years ago, in October 1956 in Hungary, the world witnessed one of the most dramatic and heartbreaking events of the 20th century. It all began with a demand by the Hungarian people to stop the teaching of Russian in Hungarian schools.
This reasonable demand gathered momentum and finally burst into a full-scale revolt against Communism. In that Communist satellite state, the love of freedom had smoldered, and it seized this chance to go into action.
To the surprise of most observers, it was primarily the youth of Hungary who led the revolt against Communism — the young people who had never known anything else in their lives except submission to Communist authoritarianism. Yet, they fought for freedom with a “give me liberty or give me death” passion unequaled in modern times.
The term “Molotov cocktail” originated in Hungary. Teenage girls and boys would fill a jug with gasoline; then, when the Soviet tank came down their street, they would jump with the lighted gasoline into the turret of the tank as a human torch.
On November 4, 1956, the Soviets rolled their tanks and their Mongolian troops into Budapest to crush freedom, and the free Hungarian radio broadcast its last desperate appeal: “Free peoples of the world, please help. The Russians are here. They are killing and raping and destroying. What is happening to us today, may happen to you tomorrow.”
In the United States, many people made speeches of righteous indignation. But in this moment of crisis, the United States did not act, and the Freedom Fighters were crushed by orders of the man who is known in history as the Butcher of Budapest, Nikita Khrushchev.
The United States could have done many things to save freedom in Hungary. Hungarian refugees believe that, if we had just sent an Army brass band to march down the streets of Budapest and play “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” Khrushchev would not have dared to send his troops into Hungary.
If the United States had simply extended diplomatic recognition to the Hungarian Freedom Fighters at the time they were in de facto control of Hungary, Khrushchev would not have dared to send in his troops.
Any sign we gave of support for the Freedom Fighters would have been the signal for anti-Communist revolutions in all the satellite countries. The captive peoples in Poland, Czechoslovakia and other satellites were ready and eager to take immediate advantage of any help that the West gave to Hungary.
The Soviets could not have fought eight revolutions at once. A successful Hungarian Revolution would have signaled the collapse of world Communism.
Several years later, U.S. newspapers reported that, at the crucial moment of truth during the Hungarian Revolution, the State Department had sent a telegram to Yugoslavia’s boss, Marshall Broz Tito. This telegram said: “The United States does not look with favor upon the establishment of governments on the border of the Soviet Union which are unfriendly to the Soviet Union.”
Fearful of American public reaction, the State Department did not dare to send the message openly or directly to Khrushchev. So the wire was sent to Tito knowing that within minutes it would be transmitted to Moscow.
This remarkable telegram was positive assurance that the United States would NOT intervene to save Hungary. Upon receipt of this telegram from Tito, Khrushchev immediately moved in his troops and tanks, and that was the end of the glorious, short-lived Hungarian revolt.
Meanwhile, the United Nations appointed a commission to investigate what was happening in Hungary. But the fighting got too bloody for the commission’s tender sensibilities, and its members chickened out on going to Hungary.
They decided they could learn all they wanted to know by reading the newspapers. While the UN talked, Hungarian freedom died.
Some members of the UN, who had a conscience, kept the matter of Hungary on the UN agenda, year after year. Finally, the UN decided to drop the Hungarian Revolution down the Memory Hole and erase it from the agenda altogether.
By 1963, even the United States agreed to withdraw the resolution to censure the Soviet Union for its aggression in Hungary. The United Nations disregarded morality or expediency and admitted the Communist puppet government of Hungary to the General Assembly.
In Hungary today, the people have peace as the Communists want it — the peace of the cemetery and total submission. That is the only kind of peace which the Communists ever want.
