Krónika, 1982 (8. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1982-01-01 / 1. szám
“Whereas on October 23, 1956, the Hungarian Freedom Fighters and other participants in the Hungarian Revolution attempted to free the Hungarian people from the oppression of the Soviet police state, and “Whereas the Congress supports the efforts of all freedom-loving peoples to protect their individual human rights and other rights of self-determination, "Now therefore be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled that the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation designating October 23, 1981, as Hungarian Freedom Fighters Day and calling upon the people of the United States to reaffirm our belief in the eventual victory of the freedom-loving human spirit over oppression.” I have some prepared remarks that I have already distributed to the press, but having listened to the eloquent remarks that preceded me on this platform, if you don't mind, I am going to depart from that prepared text, because aside from paying the appropriate accolades to all of you present for maintaining in the memory of man those brave deeds that were accomplished during those fleeting days in the autumn of 1956 that we honor at this time each year, I think there is a broader message that all of us should be considering, and that broader message is what they fought for. And what they fought for, unfortunately, is the unending battle for freedom. If you think back to 1956, and you recreate in your mind at that time the degree of power that the Soviet Union had, the imperialist ambitions that the Soviet Union had, at a time when the United States had unquestioned military supremacy, and yet, because of a concatenation of events that paralyzed us into inactivity and represented, as far as most Americans feel today, one of our more shameful moments in history because we failed at the appropriate time to come to the aid of the Hungarians. We find ourselves today in a position of inferiority to the Soviet Union in both conventional and strategic weapons, and they can fire the General Schweitzers as most recently happened this past week, for telling American Army officers the harsh realities about Soviet military strength versus our own. But that does not change the fact that we have permitted the Soviets to get ahead of us. Secondly, if we look at the past 25 years, we must acknowledge as well that more millions have come under communist domination than at any time in history. At a time when we were slipping in strength, we watched nation after nation fall under the dark cloud of Soviet tyranny and oppression. Thank God we made a decision as people of the United States last year to change direction. And I say "thank God” because the menace that overcame your homeland, and the menace that overcame all of the nations of Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, and the menace that is now in the process of attempting to overtake Afghanistan, and coveting Iran, and coveting nations on the African continent remains to this moment unchecked. The atrocities perpetrated in your homeland are atrocities today being perpetrated on an hourly basis in Afghanistan. And while the Afghans are valiantly fighting and recreating, in fact, the events that we honor here tonight, it is a kind of déja vu experience; watching history repeat itself; watching brave souls resisting domination of their homeland; watching a repeat of the events that occurred in the streets of Budapest with small children taking on Soviet tanks with Molotov cocktails; watching women resisting the cruelties of the Soviet secret police; watching students, farmers and workers in Hungary standing up and shaking their fists in bold defiance of an all-powerful tyrant that had occupied their homeland. Those events are still going on. And the free world must acknowledge at this moment in history that the Soviet objective and the Soviet course since the time the Bolsheviks came to power has been unchanging, unrelenting — their tactics may from time to time have changed, but it represents a determination on the part of a handful of individuals — not the Russian people, certainly not the Russian people — a handful of ideologically determined people who are bent on world domination. And anyone who will not acknowledge that fact is a person who has ignored the lessons that we should have learned 25 years ago when those valiant Hungarians fought. Now, there is a time bomb ticking that is much more ominous to the Soviets today than the United States’ determination to rebuild our military strength. And the time bomb that is ticking found its first expression on October 23rd of 1956. It was an expression that resembled in certain respects the old Olympic marathon runners carrying batons, who passed their batons on to others. Those who picked-up the baton took hope out of the courage and valiance of the Hungarians. The Czechs were amongst them in 1968. But it seemed freedom was again snuffed out. Then in 1979 it was the Afghans and today it is the Poles. Stop and consider the significance of what is happening in Poland today. The dialectics of Karl Marx rationalized the emergence of free enterprise as a positive thing because it would produce a class-conscious proletariat. And the class-conscious proletariat would at 4 KRÓNIKA