Magyar Egyház, 1976 (55. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1976-12-01 / 12. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

9

REVOLUTIONS:

SUCCESSFUL AND OTHERWISE

by Dr. Arpad F. Banda, Ph.D.

Professor of Finance, The University of Akron

In 1976 we mark the twentieth anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution and the two hundredth anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence. The highlights of these events are well-known to many but it is only fitting for us to review them before we look at the factors that made the difference between the two outcomes.

In April of 1775 at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, open rebellion started in some of the American colonies against the representatives of the government of Great Britain. Eight years later in 1783, the Treaty of Paris recognized the independence of thirteen American colonies from Great Britain. In the nearly 200 years that followed, the independence of these colonies has endured. They were unified and organized as the United States of America.

On October 23, 1956 primarily in Budapest, open rebellion started against the red puppet government in Hungary established by Red Russia. That puppet government was overthrown in a week’s time and the Russian Red Army garrison in Hungary was in full retreat. A new independent, neutralist government was established. The Russian Red Army then invaded Hungary with massive strength. The new independent, neutralist government was crushed and the Russian Red Army established a new red puppet government in Hungary which is still dominated by Red Russia.

What factors made these outcomes so different? What lessons can we learn from these two monumental events in world history? The results are due to some very fundamental differences in the underlying conditions in the two countries that most of us have forgotten with the passage of time in the case of Hungary and never learned with our limited reading of the history of the United States.

In 1775 the government in London influenced by King George III was directed by Parliament where there was sharply divided opinion as to what course of action should be taken in case some of the American colonies decided to break away from Great Britain. In the American colonies, there had been a tradition of self-government for nearly 150 years during which time the Royal Government was represented by governors and a few officials appointed from London. After 1763- when the last major French possessions in America were taken by Great Britain,

the British military presence was reduced to one permanent base in New York. It was only when local problems developed in Boston that troops were sent there at the request of the royal governor.

When the rebellion started in April, 1775, there was a sharp division of opinion between those who wanted independence and those who remained loyal to the crown in the thirteen colonies. Other colonies of Great Britain in what is today Canada, both French- and English-speaking, remained loyal to the crown during the eight years that followed. The political turning point in the rebellion came with the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. After a victory by the American forces, France recognized the independence of the colonies and became an active participant in the war. The final major battle of the war came at Yorktown in 1781. It was a victory achieved by a combined American army and a nearly equally large French army under General Rochambeau laying siege to a British army in Yorktown under General Cornwallis. The success of this siege was due to the French navy under Admiral De Grasse that took control of the sea and kept the British navy from either reinforcing or evacuating its land forces. When the news of this defeat reached London, the Prime Minister resigned and the new government was ready to acknowledge the independence of the American colonies even though the main British army was still intact in New York. When the Peace Treaty was ratified in 1783, more loyalists left the thirteen American colonies then fled from the French Revolution a decade later.

In 1956 the government in the Kremlin was unified and determined to keep its possessions in eastern Europe that it gained in 1945 with the end of World War II and controlled through its various puppet governments backed by regular Red Army garrisons in each country. There was no self-government in Hungary in 1956, as in the period of 1945- 1956 the red puppet government dominated, directed and controlled all phases of life in Hungary.

The students and young men and women in Budapest started the rebellion and the nation rallied to their side. With a unity of purpose, they destroyed the red puppet government in Hungary and sent the remnants of the Russian Red Army garrison fleeing toward the Russian border. A united Hungarian nation without foreign help had regained its independence. This victory was short-lived, as no foreign government recognized the newly independent nation and none was willing to demand that Red Russia leave Hungary to enjoy its proclaimed peaceful neutrality. Instead, the western powers assured Red