"When it comes to issues of great importance, there is no such thing as a small nation", Minister of Foreign Affairs János Martonyi said at Thursday night’s gala dinner in the United States Institute of Peace commemorating the 56th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
The Foreign Minister was 12 years old at the time of the revolution. He recalled his personal memories as to the passionate freedom speeches and also the terrible shock that the November 4 Soviet intervention had caused. He thanked the martyrs of the revolution for having fought for freedom, a cause achieved only long after the revolution, and he also expressed his gratitude to the United States, which allowed thousands of Hungarian refugees settle on her soil.
The exemplary 1956 Hungarian Revolution marked the beginning of a tyranny’s decline, Republican Deputy Mario Diaz-Balart told attendees of the event. He praised Viktor Orbán and Hungary for showing solidarity with those people who are still fighting for freedom.
Donald Rumsfeld, former U.S. Secretary of Defence, said the Hungarian fight for freedom was proof that humans had been born to be free.
George Pataki, former Republican governor of New York State, who is of Hungarian descent, stressed that even though Hungary's 1956 revolution had been suppressed, it had an enormous effect all around the world. The Hungarian revolution influenced former US President Ronald Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II, who all played a role in overthrowing communism years later, he added.
Hungary was the first nation to offer financial support of one million dollars for the construction of a Global Museum of Communism in Washington, historian and chairman of the Victims on Communism Memorial Foundation Lee Edwards told the dinner’s participants, also expressing his thanks to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for Hungary's financial contribution.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid tribute to the heroes of 1956 in a video message.
(Prime Minister’s Office)
