Accepted Abstracts

The American Foreign Missions and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
I will describe how the U.S. State Department and U.S. Embassies all around the World reacted to the Hungarian revolution. The paper based on my research in the National Archives in College Park, MD. There I found the telegrams and reports of American embassies all around the World. My research focuses on multiple aspects of the United States' political reaction to the revolution.
The first few days in the communication were gathering information about the events in Budapest. The American foreign offices collected information about the reception of the events in foreign countries. These documents give new information pertaining to how countries all around the World reacted to the Hungarian revolution. From many places, like Hungary, Moscow, France, etc. the embassies sent many telegrams every day to Washington D.C.
After the American decision to not send troops to Eastern-Europe the second goal of the embassies were getting information on which country will follow the U.S.’s policy about the Hungarian question in the United Nations. After the Soviet attack, the big refugee crisis provided a third wave in communication since the U.S. was interested in who is willing to accept Hungarians. The American Embassies' inner communication shows that it was a prestige question of how many refugees can go to different countries. The United States organized it’s biggest airlift since the Berlin crisis, to transport Hungarians to New Jersey. Austria and Yugoslavia received thousands of dollars of support from the U.S. and from the United Nations.
I provide a wide view of the different reactions not just geographically, but in their topics and by the most typical reactions. I will talk more about the American Embassy in Moscow and in Budapest since these are critical places in the view of the topic. The Embassy in Moscow was responsible for getting the American decision to the Soviet leaders, but also their role in information gathering was critical in the first week of the revolution. The Hungarian Embassy’s reports and telegrams are providing a very interesting view, of what was life like in the offices and what was the official information from Hungary.
Another unique aspect of the documents is that they contain information about the reaction of the society in some countries. Protests, blood donations, donation events, and public speeches were reported from all around the World. The diplomats reported these events from the local press, but in some cases, they were participants too.
The goal of my presentation is to give a brief introduction to this topic with the use of new documents and new perspectives.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
PhD-student of University of Pécs

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