OPINION:
In 1956, Russian tanks rolled into Hungary and we welcomed them with Molotov cocktails. They did not like that, so they withdrew from Budapest and offered peace talks at their military headquarters. The naive Hungarians accepted, were arrested by the KGB and the Russian-style “special operation” started in my homeland. Many, including my good friend Jancsi Danner, died in the fighting, 3% of the population escaped, the legitimate prime minister and defense secretary were hanged, a puppet government was established and the foundation for another 33 years of occupation was laid.
So what was the lesson learned in Hungary? Russia learned that aggression works, that the Neville Chamberlain mentality still dominates Western democracies (and that Ukraine would be an easy place to test this theory). The Hungarians learned that supporting Russia’s peace talks keeps their natural gas flowing; the Ukrainians learned that their blood is seen as less valuable than their rare earths and finally, the dictators and autocrats of the world are welcoming the age when “deals” among outsiders can determine the borders of independent nations.
In 1956, then President Dwight Eisenhower did not contemplate building hotels in Moscow or Gaza. He did not call our martyr prime minister a dictator, nor did he say that the Hungarians started the fight with Russia.
BELA LIPTAK
Stamford, Connecticut
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