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 - End game
FABULOUS SPY GAMES the Soviet Bloc, began his diplomatic relations with Hungary through Nyerges, who had the keen sense to identify the person who would one day hold the reigns in West German politics.417 417 The fact that, in the mid-1980s, he published a book about the theory and science of diplomatic negotiations, based mostly on his experience negotiating with the EEC and over GATT says a lot about János Nyerges’ diplomatic competence. Nyerges 1986 418 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-12344/5 p. 215 Transcript by the Intelligence Division III/I, 20 February 1963 Emil Hoffmann played only a bit part in this story, but he became very useful amidst the changing circumstances of the 1960s: he not only understood and fervently supported East-West trade, he was also a journalist who recognised it was good business to influence the anti-Kádár public feeling in western countries after the revolution was crushed, and to help make Kádár as a person acceptable and even likeable in the eyes of western societies. This was just what the new regime needed; by operating a journalist network, it put a lot of work into making itself presentable on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Although Hoffmann was expelled from Hungary as a trader, he did maintain his relationships with journalists. It was not only Lindner, but also Vienna press attaché Gerd Bíró who had good relations with ‘Fabulous’, and he was also still in contact with the ambassador to Vienna Sándor Kurtán, whom he knew from their years back in Berlin.418 152
