Hungary Wins Bush’s Praise

President Bush on Thursday marked the 50th anniversary of Hungary’s failed attempt to overthrow Communist rule, saying the country’s transition to democracy more than three decades later offered the world a valuable lesson: “Liberty can be delayed, but it cannot be denied.”

Speaking atop a historic promontory, Bush used the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 as a metaphor for what has become a central theme of his presidency. Just as partisans faced Soviet tanks in the streets half a century ago in a bid to win freedom from an oppressive ruler, so the war in Iraq is the leading edge of his campaign to instill democracy across the Middle East and beyond.

“As people across the world step forward to claim their own freedom, they will take inspiration from your example, and draw hope from your success,” the president said to an audience of perhaps 300 people atop Budapest’s Gellert Hill as the late-afternoon temperature rose into the 90s.

When the remains of Imre Nagy, the prime minister who briefly ruled Hungary during the revolt were reburied here in June 1989, hundreds of thousands of Hungarians took to the streets. The outpouring for Nagy, who was executed in 1958, set in motion the eventual departure of Soviet troops and the end of domination by Moscow. Hungary became the first of the Warsaw Bloc nations to smoothly establish a parliamentary democracy.

On Thursday, the failed 1956 uprising and its historical context became a foundation for the day, from Bush’s remarks when he was greeted by Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom, to the speech just before he headed home after a three-day European trip.

With Solyom at his side in the early 19th-century Sandor Palace, Bush said he was in Hungary to honor a revolution “that celebrated the notion that all men and women should be free.”

The visit, Solyom said, underlined the importance of 1956 in world history, and the values of “freedom, liberty, democracy, human rights and national self-determination” for which the partisans fought.

But Solyom also linked the revolution’s values to the campaign against terrorism, saying that it could succeed “only if every step and measure taken are in line with international law.”

Gellert Hill overlooks the two districts of the city to the north: Buda on one side of the Danube River, and Pest on the other. On the hill is a monument first dedicated to Soviet soldiers who died besieging Budapest in 1944 and 1945 and then remodeled after the fall of communism to memorialize those who died “for the independence, freedom and success of Hungary.”

The hill was named for St. Gellert, a missionary bishop invited by King Stephen I about 1,000 years ago to help convert pagans to Christianity. By Hungarian legend, pagan leaders rolled him down the hill in a barrel, to his death.

With thunder sounding in the distance, Bush said Hungary represents “the triumph of liberty over tyranny.”

For a brief moment in 1956, the Hungarian Revolution captured American popular attention. More than 35,000 Hungarians found refuge in the U.S.

But there were other events taking place in October 1956: The Suez Canal was in crisis, and President Eisenhower was seeking reelection. The United States did not enter the fray in Hungary, and 6,000 Soviet tanks were sent in to crush the partisans.

In his 13-minute speech, Bush linked the spirit of Hungary’s revolutions directly to the new Iraqi government. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, the president said, “is committed to the democratic ideals that also inspired Hungarian patriots in 1956 and 1989.”

Saluting Hungary’s contribution, now reduced, to operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as its peacekeeping work in the Serbian province of Kosovo, the president said, “You believe that free nations have an obligation to help others realize the benefits of freedom.”

During the day, Bush also viewed the Holy Crown of St. Stephen, the king who resolved to make Hungary a Christian kingdom. The crown fell into U.S. hands at the end of World War II. President Carter approved its return to Hungary in 1978 to recognize improving respect here for human rights despite continued Communist domination.

And Bush placed a bouquet at a dark gray granite monument, built 10 years ago, to those who died in the 1956 uprising.