József Mindszenty was a Roman Catholic cardinal ordained shortly after World War II who staunchly resisted the fascist and later Communist governments that ruled Hungary. His fierce opposition to the new regime led to his arrest on December 26, 1948; he was accused of treason and conspiracy. He was forced to confess to a host of crimes, including the theft of Hungary’s crown jewels, planning a Third World War, and that, once this war was won by the Americans, he himself would assume political power in Hungary. On February 8, 1949, he was sentenced to life imprisonment (photo at right). Mindszenty later said he had been hit with rubber truncheons and subjected to other forms of torture until he agreed to confess. On October 30, 1956, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Mindszenty was released from prison and he returned to Budapest the next day and made a radio broadcast praising the anti-Communist Revolution. However, when the USSR invaded Hungary on November 4, Cardinal Mindszenty sought asylum at the United States embassy.
Mindszenty lived there for the next 15 years, unable to leave the grounds. Eventually, Pope Paul VI offered a compromise: declaring Mindszenty a “victim of history” (instead of communism) and annulling the excommunication imposed on his political opponents. The Hungarian government allowed Mindszenty to leave the country in September 1971. He lived in exile in Vienna and died in 1975 at age 83.
In these excerpts, several Foreign Service officers speak about their experiences with Cardinal Mindszenty at the US embassy in Budapest. James McCargar served in Budapest from 1946 until 1947, before Mindszenty was first arrested, and describes the difficulties the embassy had in negotiating with him. Oddly enough, a sharp letter from the embassy to Mindszenty outlining U.S. opposition to his views would later be used against him by the Communists. Ambassador Horage C. Torbert gives a short report about the cardinal as he was in Budapest in the 1960s. In the 1970s Donald B. Kursch worked as Consular and Economic Officer in Budapest. Lawrence Cohen was an attaché for Environment, Science and Technology from 1991 until 1994 and reports in a retrospective view about the occurrence. All were interviewed by Charles Stuart Kennedy.
Read Full Article »