Quayle Speech in Bulgaria Turns Into Noisy Anti-Communist Rally

A speech by Vice President Dan Quayle turned into an anti-Communist rally Friday, with more than 20,000 Bulgarians waving American flags, shouting “U.S.A.!” and chanting “We don’t want communism.”

“America is with you,” Quayle, the highest-ranking U.S. official ever to visit Sofia, told the crowd that crammed the central Alexander Nevsky Square despite pouring rain.

The rally in Sofia was the biggest mass event organized during Quayle’s tour of Germany, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. Above the sea of umbrellas in the square waved hundreds of blue flags of the Union of Democratic Forces--an alliance of 20 non-Communist Bulgarian parties--and thousands of small American banners.

“America never forgot Bulgaria during the long, dark years of totalitarianism after World War II,” Quayle said.

The crowd responded with shouts of “Down with communism!”, “Red rubbish!” and “Communists are mafia!”

President Zhelyu Zhelev said in reply: “The Communists failed over the decades of their rule to implant hatred against the land of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.”