Firfy years on - remembering Budapest

Next week marks the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising against the communist regime and the ever so brief government of Imre Nagy. I suppose I should have a special affinity for this episode as it occurred in the year in which I was born although it was years before I learned of its significance. I can remember no mention of it at school which is surprising as in those years Americans liked to highlight any real or perceived flaw in the Communist bloc. Despite, or perhaps because of, my odyssey through left wing thought (socialist, communist, Maoist, anarchosocialist) in my teens and twenties I missed any reference to it. (Just as the US government and right wing politicians liked to highlight Soviet deficiencies the left, in general, would try and paper them over.)

Certainly I was much more cognisant of the Prague spring of 1969, the year after my true political awakening (the Democratic convention in '68 was the catalyst). Even though aware of the events in the Czechoslovak capital I suspect that even then I was probably an apologist for that event as well.

There are many lessons that we can take away from what occurred in Budapest fifty years ago and some are applicable today.

One lesson is that it is simple to divide the world in two and, having chosen sides, to be blinded to the faults of the system you support as well as to the strengths of the system you oppose. The world no longer reflects the bipolar structure that it had at the time of my birth but there are many, including the US president, who sees the world in black and white. One side full of goodness and light (our side) and one side full of darkness and evil (those agin us). This world view can only lead to violence, war, tyranny and failure.

Another lesson to be remembered is that those desirous of freedom and willing to fight for it are encouraged by other, larger players when their struggle satisfies the short term self interest of the sponsor and then are ruthlessly discarded when they no longer meet that purpose or when some conflicting objective comes to outweigh their usefulness. The Hungarians were led to expect substantive support from America but it never materialised and America stood by as the Soviet army crushed the short-lived Hungarian republic. Nagy was executed two years later. The dead and damaged left behind can be found scattered across the globe. Pawns to the Spieleisters of Realpolitik they have been left behind by the great powers Vietnam, Korea, the Congo, Cuba, Iraq, Algeria and elsewhere. Only too late do they realise that they are no longer fighting and dying for their own interests.

When we hear western leaders who have never fought for a thing in their coddled lives spout empty platitudes about their "freedom agenda" and the "battle for democracy" we should prepare ourselves for the slaughter and subjugation to follow.