President Bush this week travels to Budapest to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian revolution, which was crushed by Soviet troops even as it gave hope to democratic reformers.
“Nineteen-fifty-six was a year of unspeakable tragedy for the Hungarian people,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier this year. “But 50 years later, from the vantage point of history, we see that 1956 was also the beginning of something greater, something far more promising.”
“In the Hungarian Revolution, the world saw that hope was alive behind the Iron Curtain,” she added.
More than three decades after the failed revolution, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe, paving the way for Hungary?s transition to democracy.
Bush?s visit to Hungary comes at a time when the White House is unhappy with Moscow for backsliding on democratic reform since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The president had planned to express his displeasure by traveling this week to Ukraine, a former Soviet state that is turning increasingly to the West. But Bush decided to go to Hungary instead because the Ukrainians were having difficulty forming a coalition government.
Before visiting Budapest, Bush will go to Vienna, Austria, for a summit with the European Union. Topics of discussion include the Doha round of global trade negotiations and the ongoing war against terrorism in Iraq and elsewhere.
Bush will also try to rally international support for a united front against Iran?s enrichment of nuclear material for possible use in weapons. But national security adviser Stephen Hadley cautioned reporters not to expect any breakthroughs.
“I don?t think you’re going to see any news on this issue coming out of the summit,” he told reporters last week.
“The president believes that a united international front is the best way to encourage Iran verifiably to suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities and return to negotiations,” he added. “And if they do so, the United States will participate in those negotiations.”
