Washingtoni Krónika, 1988. szeptember-1989. március (13. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)
1988-09-01 / 1. szám
11 -MAGYAROK LEVELE AMERIKAI LAPOK "LETTERS TO THE EDITOR" ROVATBAN Writer ignores ruler's brutal reputation As an ethnic Hungarian, a Republican Party member and a democrat, I was deeply shocked when reading Nicholas Kittrie's July 27 Commentary article, “How to choose friends in the Eastern Bloc?” In praising Nicolae Ceausescu as an “old and proven friend” and communist Romania as “our ally in times of need," Mr. Kittrie blatantly ig-Visitors From Hungary Donate Radcliffe made one mistake in her interesting “Hungary's Grosz and His Bipartisan Itinerary" Duly 26): she said that Karoly Groses visit to the United States is "the first ever by a Hungarian Communist Party chief.” Wrong. In 1946, \yhen Hungary had a coaliüon government dominated—unfortunately only on paper—by the conservative Smallholders Party, which won 57 percent of all votes in the 1955 first-andonly free election in the Moscow bkx, Washington invited a Hungarian government delegation. It was headed by the prime minister, the late Ferenc Nagy (no km of Imre Nagy, the martyred communist prime minister of the 1956 revolution), and among its members was the Communist Party boss, Hungary's dreaded "little Stalin," Mátyás Rákosi. The Hungarians stayed at the Blair House. U.S. news organizations knew very well that not the prime minister but Mr, Rákosi was the real power in his country, occupied by the Red Army. The Associated Press dispatched its top diplomatic reporter, John Hightower, to interview Mr. Rákosi. A middleaged deskman asked to go along. Mr. Hightower reluctantly agreed. The first question in such interviews is usually a neutral one, and the deskman thought this was his chance. "Well. Mr. Rákosi, how are things in Bucharest?" he asked. Mr. Rákosi, a mean man and one who did not suffer silliness Lightly, looked him over and, turning to Mr. Hightower, said: “Next question?" The visit was long forgotten: it happened probably before Donnie Radcliffe was born. But this exchange was recalled for decades in Washington journalistic circles. ENDRE MARTON Chevy Chase nored the Romanian dictator's callous reputation as a Stalinist tyrant and a chauvinist oppressor of his country’s ethnic minorities. What Mr. Kittrie commends as Mr. Ceausescu's “austerity policy" has meant keeping his nation for years in utmost scarcity of the prime necessities of food, fuel, electrical energy and gasoline. What he euphemistically calls “restructuring of inefficient farming and development of new urban centers" translates in reality to bulldozing of historic villages (primarily the Hungarian ones) and driving innocent people into reeducation centers along the lines of one-time Maoist models. Nowadays the inhabitants of that unfortunate country, including many ethnic Romanians, are fleeing in thousands to neighboring Hungary, where they claim to breathe freely, take advantage of the good supply of food, enjoy the wide selection of books, magazines and newspapers, and are pampered by the traditional Hungarian hospitality. Romania is a police state, where personality cult has reached unprecedented heights, lb praise its regime's "achievements" is tantamount to approving its corrupt tyrant's policies and to ignore its people's sufferings. And to do this in the columns of a respectable Washington newspaper is unusual, inexplicable and tends to point to a surprising lack of editorial wisdom. EDMUND GASPAR Washington Awareness about Europe's largest minority 2 In her July 12 Commentary article. "Looking on is not enough,” Juliana Pilon clearly stated the facts about the most brutal cultural genocide in Eastern Europe. Miss Pilon is the first to dare write the truth about Europe's largest minority, the TVansylvantan Hungarians. For 25 years we have tried to inform and educate the Department of State and Congress about the atrocities committed against 2.5 million TVansylvanian Hungarians. The State Department, Congress and the liberal media listened to us. The world's No 1 disinformation agency, Romania, was about to deceive the greatest democracy of the free world Romanian spy chiet It Gen. Ion Mfhai Pacepa’s book, (Red Horizons." should become mandatory reading material for anyone involved global politics. Unfortunately, the American public's awareness about TVansylvania begins and ends with Count Dracula. Very few know that the TVansylvanian Hungarians were the first to declare absolute religious freedom and operated the printing press before the British and Italians mastered the art. What the modem era Romanian Dracula — Nicolae Ceausescu — does to the fellow countrymen of Bela Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Eugene Ormandy, George Szell, Sir George Solti, Franz Liszt, etc., surpasses the dastardly deeds of the greatest eliminator in historv. Josef Stalin. TAMÁS A. deKUN, __ ______Washington KÖZÖLVE DÁTUMOK SZERINT: 1/Jul.7% BURLINGTON TIMES NEWS; 2/Aug.2,THE WASHINGTON TIMES; 3/Auf-5.THE WASHINGTON POST; 4/Aug.16,THE WASHINGTON TIMES A local examDle of honesty j Editor A few weeks ago, I lost a very fine lizard wallet in downtown Washington D.C It made me upset and sad because I treasured it for sentimental reasons. Since I had only my Union membership card in it without address, the person who found it had taken time and trouble to find me and call me. I offered him to keep the money as a reward. However, he insisted “It would not be honest," and returned all the bills and change, and of course, my wallet This young man is 24 years old. His name is William K. Lasley Jr., and lives in Burlington, N.C at 2204 Dorsett St My thanks to Bill — you gave me a shining example of honesty. GIZELLA RÓNA Washington. D.C WASHINGTONI KRÓNIKA XIII. ÉVFOLYAM 1988. SZEPTEMBER HÓ
