The first move in the direction of the Partnership Program was a change in U.S. policy toward Eastern-bloc countries under President Ronald Reagan. The previous policy had been a consequence of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, a bloody suppression of a native Hungarian uprising by forces of the Soviet Union. Soviet tanks in the streets of Budapest were a scene depicted by the media of the times. The Soviets under Nikita Khrushchev seemed implacable in their resolution to pursue and eliminate all the revolutionaries they could find. Former co-nationals of Austria in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Hungary had been an ally of the Third Reich, contributing some ten divisions to the invasion of Russia. They recanted in 1944, following the model of Italy's recantation, but it was too late. Overrun by Soviet forces on the way to Berlin, they became a satellite of the Soviet Union and member of the Warsaw Pact. They were behind the Iron Curtain.