Hungarian Two-Step
FABIAN, BELA
Hungarian Two-Step Diplomacy in a Whirlpool. By Stephen D. Kertesz. Notre Dame. 273 pp. $4.75. Reviewed by Beta Fabian Former leader, Hungarian Democratic party; veteran of Nazi concentration...
...Kertesz, fearful that the Germans might examine his papers en route in spite of his diplomatic immunity, slept every night with his diplomatic pouch under his pillow and a bottle of benzine and a cigarette-lighter at hand to burn the dangerous documents in an emergency...
...The section of the book describing the rapid disillusionment of the Hungarian intelligentsia, who at first nurtured hopes that Stalin's Communist regime in 1945 would be different from Bela Kun's reign of terror in 1919, is of special interest...
...emissary Allen Welsh Dulles in Switzerland...
...When Miklos Kallay became Prime Minister of Hungary in 1942, he did everything possible to block Nazi Germany's increasing demands for a greater Hungarian contribution to the German war effort...
...veteran of Nazi concentration camps There is an old Hungarian folk dance, called the Kallay Two-Step, in which the dancers take two steps forward and then two steps back...
...In 1946, Mr...
...Kertesz gives a vivid description of Budapest after the first weeks of Russian occupation...
...He made apparent concessions, but always knew how to render them ineffective...
...Stephen D. Kertesz served in the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Arfairs during this period, and the first part of his book presents a perfect picture of these machinations to outwit the Nazis...
...The Allay TWO-STEP had come to an end...
...Kertesz carried top-secret documents in his diplomatic pouch...
...Later, he became Hungary's Minister to Rome, quitting his post in the summer of 1947...
...now it was the Dane macabre...
...By that time, the Hungarian Government was firmly in the grip of Mayas Ramos's agents and Communist orders could no longer be outwitted or stalled...
...This skilful maneuvering in dangerous waters was soon labeled the Kallay Two-Step by Budapest journalists...
...Traveling as a diplomatic courier between Hungary and Switzerland in 1943, Mr...
...it did not take the population long to learn that there was not much difference between Nazi and Communist oppression...
...At that time, the Hungarian Government wanted to stop fighting on Hitler's side and was conducting clandestine negotiations with U.S...
...Kertesz was secretary general of the Hungarian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference...
...Dealing with facts and anecdotes rather than theories, he shows in highly readable fashion the plight of small countries wedged in between powerful neighbors...
Vol. 37 • April 1954 • No. 17
