00474 - IBSSA - USA Report - The 1956 Hungarian Revolution - MacDill Air Force Base - 2008

We are very pleased to announce it, on October 23rd, IBSSA-USA delegation was honoured to be invited to a special International Military event, in Tampa, Florida, representing International Bodyguard and Security Services Association.

The event was organized on the very famous US MacDill Air Force Base, where all the International NATO Coalitions (Anti-Terrorist Coalition Team of the US Command Center) were present.

Please, read the special speech given by Colonel Gabor Nagy, – as the Leader of the Hungarian Delegation of the NATO Coalition of the US Command Center

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Good evening. On behalf of the Hungarian Liaison Team please let me express my sincere appreciation for taking your time and joining us.

Special welcome to:

Major General and Mrs,. Allendice, Director, CENTCOM J-5

Major General and Mrs Diamond, Director, CCC

Brigadier General and Mrs Franken, CENTCOM Deputy Director J-5

Mr and Mrs Bill Humblin, Vice President, Bayshore Patriots

and last, but not least, let me welcome all CENTCOM HQ and Coalition comrades, colleagues who are present here today. Ladies and Gentlemen!

Tomorrow, on 23rd of October our nation is celebrating the 52nd anniversary of the 1956 Revolution and Freedom Fight, and the 19th anniversary of the proclamation of the Third Republic.

The Republic of Hungary is situated in Central Europe, in the Carpathian Basin, with

around ten million inhabitants living on approximately 36 thousand square miles of territory.

Her foundation was laid in the ninth century by the great Magyar chief, Árpád, who after having settled in the Carpathian Basin lead the people from paganism toward Christianity. On Christmas Day, 1000, Árpád's great grandson, Stephen ascended to the throne with a crown sent from Rome by Pope Sylvester II. The kingdom and a multiethnic, multicultural nation of

Hungary was born. Hungary is one of the oldest constitutional states in Europe. The first document to declare basic constitutional rights is the Golden Bull, the Hungarian “Magna Carta” from the year 1222.

The three hundred year reign of the House of Árpád saw the country become increasingly westward-looking and the succeeding House of Anjou brought expansion - into Poland, towards Dalmatia - and a great flowering of art and architecture. The first Golden Age had begun. Under King Matthias, lauded for his fairness and justice, Hungary flourished, but his passing eventually led to decimation under the Ottomans for 150 years during the 16th and l7th-century. However, the Habsburgs helped oust the Turkish, heralding a more stable time of reconstruction.

As the Habsburg Empire floundered, a revolt in 1848 resulted in the dual monarchy of "Austria the empire, Hungary the kingdom". In 1867 there were two capitals, two parliaments. This "age of dualism" sparked an economic, cultural and intellectual rebirth in Hungary. The second golden age had begun.

Turn of the 20th century Budapest was rightly considered the birthplace of the modern world. World War I proved disastrous, however. Partitioned into almost one-third its original size, millions of ethnic Hungarians found themselves living outside the country. Following World War II Hungary became part of the Soviet area of influence, and after a brief period of multiparty democracy, by 1949 she was appropriated into an entirely communist state.

External and internal factors influenced the Hungarians’ faith, but thirstiness for liberty and freedom remained unchanged generations by generations.

The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, also known as the Hungarian Uprising was an attempt of the Hungarians to gain liberty, to promote freedom and democracy. Starting on 23^rd of October as a peaceful demonstration, sliding into bloodshed, it was suppressed in a few days, but left some twenty-five to fifty thousand Hungarians and seven thousand Soviet troops killed, thousands more wounded. Nearly a quarter million people fled the country, and found refuge elsewhere in the world. What generated the unrest?

Economic collapse and low living standards, land policies in the agricultural sector, working conditions in the industry, and academic conditions in the higher education provoked all segments of the society.

On 23rd October 1956 hundreds of thousands of Hungarians rose up against the government. Within days millions of Hungarians were participating in or supporting the uprising. The revolt achieved control over a large number of social institutions and a large part of the country’s territory.

In the beginning, the demonstrators’ demands were relatively mild, but later on tension jumped high, pretenses of moderation were dropped, guns were distributed among the masses and events slid out of control. Thousands of armed supporters – displaced earlier by the regime – also crossed the Western border to join the fighters.

A pro-Warsaw Pact government was formed on 3rd November, and Soviet troops have been invited to restore the order. Armed resistance by insurgents, and the collapse of the Hungarian Communist party caused break the ceasefire between Soviet troops and insurgents. On the night of 4 November 1956 the Soviet army intervened, launching a campaign to gain control over Budapest, while the rest of the country remained largely quiet. By January 1957 Kádár János – later Socialist Party Secretary General – had brought the instability to an end. Due to the rapid change in government and social policies, the role of left-wing ideology in motivating some of the population, and the use of armed force to achieve political goals, this uprising is often considered a revolution.

Imre Nagy, former Prime Minister – and a number others were tried and executed by the new government. By 1963 most political prisoners from the Hungarian revolution of 1956 had been released.

The historical and political significance of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution is still actively debated in my country. Thousands of people died in a few days, and tragically many of them were innocent. Violent extremists often exploit public unrest and disgrace honest intentions. That is the – hardly acceptable – nature of a revolt.

The fundamental lesson however is unquestionable, as the President of the United States, George Bush summarized in Budapest two years ago, honoring the 50th anniversary celebration…., I quote: “ The lesson of the Hungarian experience is clear: Liberty can be delayed, but it cannot be denied. The desire for liberty is universal, because it is written by our Creator into the hearts of every man, woman, and child on this Earth.” End of quote.

For my generation it is an educating lesson. It tells us that Hungarians just like other nations tirelessly promote freedom and democracy and are ready to fight for these values. Hungarians learnt from those historical lessons. In 1989 we changed our regime via bloodless, free, peaceful general elections, and proclaimed the 3rd Republic.

Huge efforts, encouraging developments in the last decade helped us to achieve a full fledged membership in NATO and European Union. Hungarians understand that security and stability are fundamental conditions for prosperity. We also understand the demands of interdependency; we share common values with the international community, thus we promote every effort to maintain global peace and security, to prevent or halt hatred, violent extremism, to help nations in their rebuilding efforts.

We, members of the small Hungarian liaison team are proud of being part of these international coalition efforts, and especially doing it under the auspices, or as I feel as an integral part of the United States Central Command. At this point let me think of those allied and partner nations’ servicemen and servicewomen, who are doing an excellent job in the theater by bringing peace to tens of millions of people, and assisting them in their nation-building struggles. Over a thousand Hungarian soldiers are among them either under UN or NATO ISAF flag, nearly half of them in the CENTCOM’s AOR.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Anniversaries, remembrance days also give us the opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to those who are providing vital support for our troops in the theatre and assist us in our daily coalition activities throughout the entire year. Today, I have the honor to thank to a member of the CCC for his outstanding support. Let me call upon Colonel Josep Moore, Deputy Chief Service Support, Chief of Resources and Sustainment Section of the CCC.

This is Colonel Moore’s second tour with the CCC. First time I met him here was in 2005, then he deployed back again to the AOR. He has field experience in both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, served in Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Afghanistan and Horn of Africa. In October 2006 he returned and took over his present position, in which he is responsible for leading and oversee the day-to-day and long range support operations of the Intelligence, Logistics – including both the transportation and equipment support sections, especially Coalition Operational Needs Statements (CONS) – Communications, Joint Manning of Coalition Staff positions for Iraq, Afghanistan and – until the end of September – the Horn of Africa Sections of the CCC in support of all Coalition Forces within the AOR.

Colonel Moore’s name is well-known in the Hungarian Defense Forces. Hungarian soldiers met him in Iraq, and tie his name with vital logistic support the United States provided and providing for them in their efforts to meet the highest interoperability standards, timely deployment and sustainment. In his different capacities he oversaw the coordination of Hungarian donations to both the Afghan National Army and the Iraqi Army; coordinated the deployment of, and loan of vehicles to the Hungarian Transport Battalion in Iraq; oversaw the coordination of having C-17 support for Hungarian rotations, in one case to help Hungarians to demonstrate capabilities to host NATO C-17 fleet on Hungarian soil; oversaw the temporary loan of 27 HMMWVs including CREW CIED systems for expanding Hungarian force contribution in Afghanistan; he is tirelessly working on temporary loan of mission critical equipment needed for Hungarian Special Operations Forces to be deployed in Afghanistan early next year.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to read the decree signed by HE Dr Imre Szekeres, Minister of Defense of the Republic of Hungary.

This medal is the second highest one the Hungarian Minister of Defense awards; it is comparable to the Defense Meritorious Service Medal in the U.S. system.

Finally, let me introduce the Hungarian Liaison Team. My colleague, Lieutenant Colonel Attila Rabai is our intelligence officer, working in the Coalition Intelligence Fusion Cell as fulltime member. His background is signal intelligence, has been serving in United Nations and NATO peace support operations before, and represented Hungary in NATO’s Signal Intelligence Committee for six years. His wife and greatest supporter is Tünde, who just gave birth to their second child, a baby boy a few days ago. Mom and kids will come to Tampa in next February.

My background is administered by my lovely wife Erika, to whom I am so grateful for her invaluable support.

Let me also thank to all CENTCOM and Coalition personnel, to the Community of Tampa for their continuous support, their comradeship, and friendship. Special thanks to the Surf’s Edge Club’s personnel for this pleasant environment and delicious food they are providing us with today. Ladies and Gentlemen, I propose to salute to the Hungarian and American National Anthems.

The members of the presented NATO Coalitions were all standing and saluted to the Hungarian and American National Anthems. *(We must mention here, we – as the representatives of IBSSA-USA felt very proud (again) to be Hungarian, and to be a part of such a big organization as IBSSA, and we were honored to be invited by our friends and the representatives of the Hungarian Military forces.

After the ceremony, all the members of the coalition were invited to taste a little Hungary, by offering Hungarian Beef Stew, Gyulai and Csabai sausages and Pick salami, just to name a few of the delicious Hungarian choices. During the tasting, people from each nation had a chance to get to know each other better and had some personal and professional conversations and created new friendships between each other.

Coalition International Night

The Coalition Senior National Representatives at United States Central Command were pleased to announce the date of the fifth annual “Coalition International Night”, which was held on 16th of December, 2008, from 6-9 pm in the Hangar One at the MacDill Air Force Base, by Arne Skjaerpe, Senior National Representative (SNR) of Norway, Coalition Chairman.

Military Representatives from more than 60 Coalition Nations and their associates were on hand to display and discuss their native customs while providing traditional cuisine for us to sample. The evening was offering not only exotic food and drinks but also a chance to learn from the great Coalition.

International Night started in December of 2004 and has grown each year. We, as the IBSSA-USA delegation, - by invitation from the Hungarian Military Representatives - were happy to be able to join the Coalition’s event this year, as their demonstrated their gratitude to all Americans on the MacDill and in the State of Florida who are supporting the troops and the Coalition in Tampa.

Colonel Gábor Nagy, Senior National Representative of Hungary to USCENTCOM, and his Spouse "Erika"

Lieutenant Colonel Attila Rabai / Intelligence Liasion Officer

• Rear Admiral Fernando Gea, Senior National Representative of Spain to USCENTcom and His "Dulce"

• Tamás Török IBSSA - USA Secretary General

• Colonel Gábor Nagy, Senior National Representative of Hungary to USCENTCOM J - 5

• Major General Michale Diamond, Director, Coalition Coordination Center USCENTCOM J-5,

• Dr. Miklós Varga IBSSA-USA CEO

IBSSA-USA

Hallandale Beach, Florida