Századok – 2020
2020 / 3. szám - MAGYARORSZÁG ÉS AMERIKA: TÖRTÉNELMI KAPCSOLATOK ÉS HATÁSOK - Glant Tibor: Segélyezés és politika. A kétoldalú amerikai–magyar kapcsolatok kialakítása 1919-ben
SEGÉLYEZÉS ÉS POLITIKA 518 AT THE CROSSROADS OF RELIEF AND DIPLOMACY The Establishment of US–Hungarian Relations in 1919 by Tibor Glant SUMMARY This paper explains how the United States and Hungary came to establish functioning (but not yet fully official) bilateral diplomatic relations from the time of their first contact in January 1919 to the arrival in Budapest of Ulysses Grant-Smith as chargé d'affaires ad interim. It is argued that American policy towards post-Habsburg Central Europe in general, and Hungary in particular, can only be understood in the double context of diplomacy and relief. Since President Wilson appointed Herbert Hoover as the head of the newly established American Relief Administration and convinced his negotiating partners to allow ARA to administer relief in postwar Europe, the former “Food Czar” of the U.S. became a major political player at the Paris Peace Conference. In Paris, the Americans played the role of moderator in response to excessive territorial claims against Hungary, and put an end to Rumanian looting after August 1919.
