Bush to Dispatch 60 Peace Corps Aides to Work in Hungary

In what was called a “historic day” for the Peace Corps, President Bush said today the agency will send 60 American volunteers to Hungary as English teachers--the first time volunteers are being assigned to a Communist nation.

It also will be the first time that volunteers are sent to Europe.

“The teaching of English is one of the most popular American exports,” Bush said, adding that the program will help “open the global market to more Hungarians.”

Bush, declaring that “the Iron Curtain has begun to part,” also promised today to give Hungary unlimited access to American markets. And Bush, warmly applauded by his audience at Karl Marx University, also offered a $25-million grant to spur this reform-minded East Bloc nation’s fledgling free-enterprise system.

‘Threshold of a New Era’

In Washington, Paul Coverdell, director of the Peace Corps, said, “This is a historic day and the threshold of a new era for the U.S. Peace Corps.”

He said the program will involve about 60 American volunteers teaching English throughout Hungary. The training of the American volunteers--including language proficiency in Hungarian--will begin this year and the contingent will be sent to Hungary early next year, he said.

The United States announced plans this spring to send Peace Corps volunteers to China, but Chinese officials have delayed the program in the wake of student unrest.

Saluting political and economic reforms in Hungary, Bush said there is “no mistaking the fact that Hungary is at the threshold of great and historic change.”

Bush’s speech, broadcast live on Hungarian television, followed talks with Hungarian leaders who gave him a plaque containing barbed wire from the fence recently dismantled along the Austrian border.

That barrier had stood as “the ugly symbol of Europe’s division and Hungary’s isolation,” the President said.

Iron Curtain Parts

“For the first time, the Iron Curtain has begun to part, and Hungary--your great country--is leading the way,” Bush said, standing against a backdrop of huge Hungarian and American flags.

In promising to eliminate trade barriers against Hungary, Bush said he planned to grant this country a permanent status as most favored nation, accorded to America’s trade friends. The only requirement is for Hungary to formally enact its new emigration law, removing all obstacles to emigration.

It is expected to be passed by the end of the year, making Hungary the first Warsaw Pact country deemed in full compliance with the Jackson-Vanik law imposing trade barriers in retaliation for emigration restrictions.

Bush said the $25-million grant that he will seek from Congress will be used to create an enterprise fund to help Hungary expand its private sector, which, although small, is the most extensive in Eastern Europe.