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 of the secret service also used equipment developed by IBM. The communist regime tolerated the company’s presence as there was no alternative to IBM’s technology for some time, and the engineers of the subsidiary were able to find a way around the difficulties imposed by the embargo by manufacturing some of the simpler components themselves. Until 1967, IBM practically ruled over the computer technology market in Hungary, a monopoly the leadership of the OMFB wished to break by importing products offered by European companies. The strongest argument to clamp down on IBM was that the increasing use of electronic computers would make the country completely dependent on the United States. The argument seems logical, but it was highly unlikely that the process could be hindered. After 1959, Hungary did buy computers from European countries, but this did nothing to ease dependence on the US, because the purchased equipment performed poorly and was often outdated, so the IBM machines could not be replaced.449 In the 1970s, the Hungarian subsidiary of the American firm was headed by a businessman of Indian origin called Dhurjati Sesha Saye. One of the reasons he was picked may have been the fact that, as the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, India was trying to strike a balance between the two world orders. Behind a facade of declaring neutrality, however, it was actually leaning towards the Soviet Union for reasons of security policy (its main enemy, Pakistan, was in the US camp). A Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation between the two countries (India and the Soviet Union) was signed in 1971. Support for the electoral victory of the Indian National Congress Party that remained in power for almost the entire period of the Cold War and flirted with the Soviets can be considered a common political interest of the Eastern Bloc, so Hungary also took part in financing India’s ruling party. Saye was therefore not fundamentally treated with hostility in the countries of the Bloc, he himself tried to strike a friendly tone by stating that “he finds the dispute between India and Pakistan to be artificially inflated, he condemns violence. He emphasises that he is committed to socialism, since socialism is being built in India, too.”450 Saye was in contact with the representatives of 449 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-15829/3, p. 199 Summary report, 29 May 1970 450 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-15829/7 p. 129 Information report, 6 June 1972 161
