History paper by Kádár Lynn, Katalin
The Cold War Intelligence Activites of Hungarian Émigrés in the West
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
In 1953 at the height of the "hot" phase of the Cold War, when liberation was still a keystone of US policy, an American intelligence operative commented that "every Hungarian of any value to intelligence is connected by now with one or another Western intelligence agency."
It certainly is very close to the truth, as Hungarian emigres were utilized in various intelligence or intelligence related capacities during WWII, a practice which was continued and greatly expanded with the onset of the Cold War and the newly arrived flood of Hungarian refugees in the west.
This paper will focus on the early years of the Cold War ( 1947-1956) and seek to introduce the various ways in which Hungarians were involved with and supported the activities of intelligence agencies of the United States and Great Britain in their efforts not only to spy upon but to destabilize the Soviet grip on their homelands. It will touch upon the organizations, individuals and networks that were in place and political orientation that the emigres themselves represented and supported.
The paper will also reveal more fully Tibor Eckhardt's history with American intelligence,the knowledge of which has greatly expanded as a result of recently declassified materials being made available.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Katalin Kádár Lynn is a historian based in Budapest and California whose principal area of scholarship is World War II and the Cold War with an emphasis on Central and East European émigré political activities and organizations. She is the founder and Editor in Chief of Helena History Press, LLC a publishing house specializing in scholarship about and from Central and East Europe in English. She most recently edited and contributed to The Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare: Cold War Organizations sponsored by the National Committee for a Free Europe/ Free Europe Committee (Helena History Press, 2013). She is the biographer of the Hungarian political figure Tibor Eckhardt titled Tibor Eckhardt: His American Years 1941-192 published in English and Hungarian (East European Monographs, L’Harmattan Press). She edited and published Eckhardt’s memoir, Tibor Eckhardt: In His Own Words. She co-authored along with historians Károly Szerencsés and Péter Strausz, Through an American Lens, Hungary 1938: Photographs by Margaret Bourke-White (East European Monographs, 2010). Kádár Lynn is currently researching and writing an expanded biography of Tibor Eckhardt, which will encompass his Hungarian years and his wartime and Cold War intelligence activities. Her upcoming publications include a biography of Béla Varga and a history of the Hungarian National Council and a survey of Hungarian immigration history from 1938 – 1972. She serves on the Editorial Board of the journal Comenius, the International Advisory Board of the AHEA e-journal Hungarian Cultural Studies, the board of the American Hungarian Library and Historical Society of New York and the American Hungarian Federation. In 2011 she was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.