The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1985 (12. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1985-04-01 / 4. szám
HUNGARY: A SPECIAL AMERICAN RELATIONSHIP-by-Professor Gilbert P. Richardson, Executive Director American Association for Study of the United States in World Affairs Why would the United States and a country in East Central Europe slightly smaller than the State of Indiana have such a mutual attraction? The capital city of Budapest is in the communist sphere, diametrically opposed to Washington, the free-enterprise capital. While President Ronald Reagan is bolstering the American presence with the North Atlantic Alliance Organization, Janos Kadar, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Hungary, is cementing relationships with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact nations. This, in itself, seems explosive, but friendly U.S.Hungarian expectations endure and appear to be improving today. Strangely, these ideological differences are swept aside temporarily to pursue the people-to-people pleasures of a colorful culture, family traditions, and heroes of history. A U.S. State Department source estimated today that there are more than 1.7-million people of Hungarian extraction living in the 50 American states. “There are good and optimistic relations with Hungary, even while recognizing our differences,’’ the State Department official said in an interview. The Press Attache of the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, Mr. Bela Juszel, was also optimistic. “The United States and Hungary relations are improving through its peoples,’’ he said. In 1983, Hungary and the United States exchanged $400-million in trade, according to another Hungarian Embassy source. Exports to the U.S. includes General Motors truck axles, canned hams, textiles, wines, glass wares, and a growing number of Hungarian tourists visiting relatives in America. Imported from the U.S., are an array of technology, more sophisticated than the limited supply in the Eastern Bloc, plus industrial chemicals, herbicides, fertilizers, and agricultural products such as, for example, soybeans for livestock. Every two years, an American Film Festival is staged in Budapest. The best productions are purchased for the cinematic media in Hungary, where theater-going is still quite popular. Although under rigid state control, television is becoming more articulate. The communist government of Hungary is raising its level of appeal for American tourists. More than 60,000 Page 8 Americans visited Hungary in 1983 and over 100,000 in 1984. Many U.S. citizens, eager to discover their roots, visited the homeland of their family tree for the first time and this trend is on the increase. The Budapest Government boasts of many new hotels, with the best food and entertainment to accommodate Americans exploring their Hungarian heritage. The American Association of Travel Writers held their convention in Budapest in 1984 and, as a result, many favorable articles about Hungary have appeared in major publications throughout the United State. The Hungarian Embassy in Washington also stated that there is no U.S. AID being sent to Hungary at all and that Hungary is a member of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, in which the U.S. has a strong voice to nourish trade with Hungary. Today, a majestic parade of celebrities, born of Hungarian bloodline, fill the pages of U.S. history, and command attention in American newspapers, radio, TV, and on motion picture screens. What would have happened, if Hungarian-born and educated Physicist, Dr. Edward Teller, had decided not to emigrate to the U.S. to father the hydorgen bomb, or the peaceful uses of nuclear energy? Among the many prominent Hungarians who chose America was Joseph Pulitzer, who built a newspaper empire with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World. In 1912, with $2,500,000, Pulitzer endowed the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York, which continues to motivate prize-winning writers and journalists to this very day. The Hollywood motion picture personalities, who claim Hungarian roots, are too numerous to mention. Only a few are Tony Curtis, Peter Lorre, Paul Lukas, Ernie Kovács, along with Zsa, Eva, and Magda Gabor. Adolph Zukor became Chairman of Paramount Pictures, while George Cukor directed “My Fair Lady”, and Michael Curtiz directed the unforgettable “Casablanca”. Novelist Ednar Ferber brought to life “Show Boat”, while Kate Seredy is remembered for her childrens’ books. Judith Remenyi became Miss USA in 1966. And what American does not recall the names and works of Bartók, Molnár, Reiner, Ormandy, and Szell? Political and moral convictions siphoned off over 13,000 displaced Hungarians to America around 1945, after World War II. Other rejuvenations of Hungarian culture were introduced in 1956 when more than 40,000 Hungarian freedom fighters found refuge in the U.S. By 1973, however, U.S.-Hungary relations had been improved, when a sum of $18,900,000 was paid for Americanowned property confiscated earlier by the communists. But earlier than that, in 1964, Budapest stopped jamming the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. And, yet, one more question remains about Hungarian freedom today. Why do 40,000 Russian troops remain inside the boundaries of the Hungarian People’s Republic? In America, there are numerous polycultural forces which are spreading the Hungarian culture in this, the last part of the 20th century. There is a spiritual cohesion emerging with more exchanges of pulpit ministers to churches run by Lutheran, Calvinist, and other Protestant religions. The Hungarian Catholic Priests Association, for example, has some 300 priests of Hungarian ancestry working among the U.S. and Canadian enclaves. These groups have their Hungarian religious publications to compare socio-political conditions in the U.S. and Hungary for readers all over North America and Western Europe, while the World Federation of Hungarian Jews headquartered in New York maintains a vast global communication network. More than 500 Hungarian clubs, organizations, and churches throughout the U.S. are devoted to the spiritual and social needs of the Hungarian community in America, which is linked by a network of 27 Hungarian newspapers and many Hungarian radio programs. Clearly, the Hungarian community in America manifests great pride of ancestry and a great hope for posterity. In a free society, their talents have made a signal contribution, which has not only enhanced the American way of life, but also the maintenance of a special relationship between the United States and Hungary. The Eighth Hungarian Tribe with subscribers in every State of the Union and Canada. _. , , ,, , Eighth Hungarian tribe
