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 - Sympathetic journalism
FABULOUS SPY GAMES information. They organised Hoffmans meetings and visits, while he was also allowed to consult the representatives of the Hungarian Telegraph Office, the National Planning Office, the Central Office for Statistics and even the Patriotic People’s Front. In spite of all this, the book was not written over the following two years as no publisher dared print such a book on the grounds that the political environment was not yet ready for such a positive’ piece of writing to be published.343 The government could have benefited hugely from the book, however, since Hoffmann listed topics in the draft of the book that would have supported Kádár ’s narrative during the retributions. For example: 1. “The reasons and consequences of the revolution, western and eastern intervention,” which means he would have spread the idea that the revolutionaries attacked the socialist regime with external imperialist help, thereby justifying even the Soviet (eastern) intervention. 2. “Nagy’s lost aura,” which suggests he had intended to communicate to western countries even before Imre Nagy’s execution that the prime minister illegally removed from his office had also lost social support in Hungary. 3. “ Kádár’s difficult path,” where the title itself is designed to evoke sympathy for a man grappling with difficulties. 4. “Western incitement as a political boomerang,” where the title suggests the anti-Kádár propaganda from the West, mainly arriving through Radio Free Europe, actually backfired in Hungary as it allowed society to close ranks behind its leader. 5. “UN recipe gone sour,” which criticised the UN committee discussing the Hungarian case. The following chapters would have clearly detailed the positive effects of seizing power: 6. “The demands of the Hungarian people met,” which sounds very much like an outrageous lie in 1957, when bloody revenge started to be exacted in the wake of the failed revolution. 8. “Emigrants without prospects,” which was in line with the amnesty promised by the regime, an attempt to coax some of the emigrants into returning, hammering the message home that trying to fit in and integrate would be a futile attempt for Hungarians trying to carve out a new life for themselves in western countries. And the book was to end as 343 ÁBTL 3.1.5. O-12344/l-a 275/32 Note, 6 April 1959 128
