Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
‘FABULOUS’ IN HUNGARY - Economic diplomacy
FABULOUS SPY GAMES toed the same line by going through with the retributions, showed continuity with the Rákosi era also in terms of its collaboration with the Nazis. The former Nazi politicians and officers who continued their public careers after the war were anti-American and fought for German unity regardless of which party they chose to resume building their careers in: the FDP or the CDU. It was this mindset that pushed them towards the representatives of the countries in the Socialist Bloc, who welcomed them with open arms. Their Anti-American feelings outweighed their anti-communist sentiments, so they found their way to the same page, even despite Kádár s vengeful politics. Hungarian foreign trade diplomacy had a keen sense in approaching these politicians, and put great emphasis on helping them into influential positions as much as they could, instead of merely having partnerships with them. As secretary of the foreign affairs committee of the West German parliament, Kiesinger had good prospects of becoming minister of foreign affairs, and the Hungarian circles represented by János Nyerges actually counted on establishing direct relations through him with the leaders controlling West German foreign policy. In 1958, however, events took a surprising turn for the Hungarians when Kiesinger left the federal parliament to become prime minister of Baden-Württemberg. When Kiesinger was elected, Todenhöfer was hunting in Hungary, and Nyerges resentfully reproached him for not keeping their promise: “I told him the news that our mutual friend, Mr Kiesinger, was elected prime minister of Baden-Wüttemberg. I added the comment that he had promised me a West German minister of foreign affairs but delivered a Swabian prime minister.”283 Nyerges ’ sentences are startling, even if he exaggerated a little when describing the events. There are two possibilities: either the conversation really played out like this, in which case we are faced with the fact that Nyerges, who had been working as the éminence grise of Hungarian economic diplomacy for decades, had considerable influence on international politics too, and the representatives of West German capitalists relied on his services, or what he said was not true, and it was only a show he 283 ÁBTL 3.1.2. M-25447, p. 182 Note on a conversation with Mr Todenhöfer, no date indicated. 106
