Comparing Iran 2009 to Hungary 1956 (updated).

"Imagine the obloquy that would greet Obama if he were to champion the demonstrators and help to create a bloodbath, as Radio Free Europe did during the 1956 Hungarian revolution, when it encouraged Hungarians to revolt by assuring them that they had backing of the West, which they didn't." Jacob Heilbrunn, TPM Café, 19 June 2009.
     "The old Soviet theocracy (with communist ideology the 'supreme leader') used tanks to crush the Hungarian revolt in 1956. Statements by American politicians, and broadcasts by Radio Free Europe, misled the Hungarian freedom fighters into thinking that they could expect military support from the United States if they continued their defiance of the Communist regime. We were not about to confront the Soviet Union in Hungary, any more than we are about to send troops to Iran." Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Washington Post, 20 June 2009.
     "Presidents dealing with foreign uprisings are haunted by two historical precedents. The first is Hungary in 1956, in which Radio Free Europe encouraged an armed revolt against Soviet occupation -- a revolt that America had no capability or intention of materially supporting." Michael Gerson, Washington Post, 21 June 2009.
     "Two of the more shameful episodes in our history involved giving people fighting repressive regimes the false hope that the U.S. would assist them. In 1956, the U.S., principally through Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, gave encouragement to the Hungarians to rebel against their Soviet overlords." Robert Robb, The Arizona Republic, 21 June 2009.
     Update: "As a Foreign Service officer, I interviewed dozens of recent Hungarian refugees as the revolution was collapsing. Not a single one mentioned that RFE played any role in inciting them to revolt." William Lloyd Stearman, letter to Washington Post, 28 June 2009. See also A. Ross Johnson, Hoover Review, Fall 2007.
     More comparisons of Hungary 1956 and Iran 1989: OhMyGov!, 22 June 2009. -- Cox Newspapers, 23 June 2009. -- Editorial, Los Angeles Times, 23 June 2009. -- Huffington Post, 23 June 2009. -- The News Leader (Staunton VA), 24 June 2009.
     See previous posts on 13 November 2006, 31 October 2006, and 24 August 2008. Posted: 04 Jul 2009 Permalink Print