Phyllis Schlafly

In October we commemorate the 50th anniversary of one of history's most momentous events. With hindsight, we can now see that the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 started the unraveling of Soviet communism that finally came to pass in 1991.



Some in the United States believed then (and still do) that President Dwight D. Eisenhower should have immediately granted diplomatic recognition to the newly formed free Hungarian government in order to warn Russia against returning, but he didn't. Instead, the Eisenhower administration sent a message to the communists that was and is still an embarrassment to Americans.

On Nov. 2, 1956, the U.S. State Department sent this cable to Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia that sealed Hungary's fate: "The government of the United States does not look with favor upon governments unfriendly to the Soviet Union on the borders of the Soviet Union." That gave the Soviet Union the green light to return with full military force, secure in the knowledge that the United States would do nothing to save the free Hungarian government.


Radio Budapest appealed to the United States and the United Nations: "We ask you to help us, to support us. Time is short. Help Hungary, help us, help us ..." But nobody answered their desperate cries for help.

The Hungarians fought bravely against overwhelming odds with homemade weapons like Molotov cocktails that destroyed 320 Soviet tanks. They fought in the tradition of Patrick Henry: "Give me liberty or give me death."


Phyllis Schlafly
