864.00/6–347: Telegram
The Chargé in Hungary (Bigelow)1 to the Secretary of State
926. Action of Russian high command in putting its tools in full control of Hungarian Govt has deeply disappointed Hungarian people who have hoped that their country would escape total Communist domination and avoid in this respect fate of Poland, Rumania and Yugoslavia. Latest developments have caused profound pessimism and a full realization that their country is again pawn in hands of an unscrupulous totalitarian power. Their distress is great but accompanied by sense of resignation perhaps explainable by fact that Hungarians have gone thru one crisis after another for uninterrupted period of nearly 10 years. The dislike of Nazis and their methods is matched by detestation of Russians except by Communist minority but fear complex on national scale is far more intense than under Hungarian Arrow Cross regime.2 It is this pervading sense of fear and pessimism which now pervades national life and is particularly operative among the intelligentsia. There is therefore tendency to accept and excuse compromises and appeasement policy of Smallholders and Socialists alike which has been such feature of Tildy regime. Population seems unexcited but this due to weariness and surfeit of crimes and what they regard as hopelessness of their position rather than moral acceptance of status quo.
- Counselor of Legation Bigelow took charge of the Legation on May 31 from Minister Schoenfeld who departed from Budapest the following day.↩
- The reference here is to the German puppet regime, dominated by the fascist-type Arrow Cross Party, which ruled Hungary during the last months of World War II.↩