Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
ATTACK ON THE OMFB - The Siemens lobby
ATTACK ON THE OMFB competitors.458 Yet, the employees of the Győr Wagon and Machinery Plant revealed in a status report to the Police Headquarters of Győr-Sopron county details of how they were forced by the OMFB to purchase Siemens computers, even though IBM products would clearly have been more appropriate.459 They listed arguments to support their choice, all of which appear quite compelling to the outsider. Near the top of the list was the consideration that engineers with Hungarian citizenship were employed at IBM’s subsidiary in Hungary. They lived in the country and so were able to provide continuous technical support to the operation and tackle any technical problems as they arose. In addition, big European carmakers that the Győr plant had a licence agreement with,460 including MAN, were using IBM computers, and cooperation among the companies promised to be smoother if they all used the same technology. The provision in the company’s draft agreement that the delivered equipment could not be used for military purposes also weighed against Siemens. The wagon plant attempted to persuade the decision-makers by pointing out that they were not able to undertake such obligations as the facility also manufactured armoured vehicles for the Hungarian People’s Army and other allied armies. Theoretically, western companies were not allowed to sell products to the East for direct military use, so deliveries were officially either recorded as intended for civil use only, or they made their way into the Bloc illegally. In other words, it made no difference whether the importer agreed to undertake such a commitment or not. The OMFB was not convinced by these arguments, of course; with the economic interests of the country in mind they countered that it is worth buying goods from a manufacturer we can export Hungarian industrial goods to in return. Siemens was open to this opportunity, IBM was not. The people at the plant in Győr reckoned that “this is such a low- 458 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-15829/2 p. 103 Evaluation report about Siemens computers, 7 August 1969 459 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-15829/2 p. 59-69 Status report, 23 June 1969 460 In the mid-1960s, the Ministry of Metallurgy and Machine Industry requested offers to establish an engine plant and obtain an engine licence from several western companies. An agreement was eventually concluded in 1967 with the MAN-Renault-Ferrostaal consortium that made the best offer and was willing to accept Hungarian goods as payment to a higher extent than its competitors. Germuska - Honvári 2014 p. 54 165
