|
|
|
This fall the Hungarian people erected a statue of their friend, Ronald Reagan, in Budapest City Park. Just as the Hungarians want to remember the indispensable role Reagan played in achieving their freedom from Soviet Communism, Americans should remember that the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 started the unraveling of Soviet Communism that finally came to pass in 1991. The Revolution started on October 23, 1956 as a peaceful student protest, but after the Russian soldiers fired on the students, it escalated into a full-scale revolution against the tyranny of Soviet Russia. By October 28, the Freedom Fighters had chased out their Russian oppressors. For the next five days, there was a political and military stalemate. The fate of a nation hung in the balance. Radio Budapest appealed to the United States and the United Nations: "We ask you to help us, to support us. Time is short. Help Hungary, help us, help us. . ." But nobody answered their desperate cries for help. The U.S. State Department gave the Soviets the green light to return by sending this cable: "The government of the United States does not look with favor upon governments unfriendly to the Soviet Union on the borders of the Soviet Union." At 4 a.m. on November 4, the Russians roared back into Budapest with 200,000 soldiers, 5,000 tanks, and masses of heavy artillery. They were directed by Nikita Khrushchev, known forever after as "the butcher of Budapest." The Hungarians fought bravely against overwhelming odds with homemade weapons like Molotov cocktails that destroyed 320 Soviet tanks. But the odds against Hungary were too massive. In a terrible blood-bath that shocked the world, freedom was crushed and the Hungarians faced more decades of cruel Communist slavery. But the valor of the Hungarians who fought in the streets gave courage to other countries. The dream was rekindled all over Eastern Europe that the day would come when they, too, might have the opportunity to throw off their captors. The effect of the Hungarian Revolution in the United States was dramatic: it changed the debate about Communism and punctured the Communist lie of peaceful coexistence. Congress soon passed a resolution calling on our President to proclaim the third week of every July as Captive Nations Week, manifesting our national belief that Communist tyranny was not permanent or inevitable, and that we should keep alive the hope of freedom among the peoples in Communist captivity. Every July, Americans held public ceremonies and parades to show our solidarity with the Captive Nations. People everywhere began to hope - and to believe - that some day the Captive Nations would be free. Then, on June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan dared to demand freedom for the Captive Nations at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, when he flung down the gauntlet to the Soviet dictator and said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!" When the Berlin Wall started to crumble in 1989, the most exciting images Americans saw on television were the young people running to freedom through Hungary. |
