Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume X, Eastern Europe

345. Telegram From the Embassy in Hungary to the Department of State¹

2440.

Budapest, March 15, 1988, 1912Z

SUBJECT

• Budapest March 15 Demonstrations; Sitrep II.

REF

• Budapest 2439.²

1. Following Tuesday’s³ mid-afternoon dissipation of the opposition’s major demonstration, there has been no major recurrence. Through early evening, a crowd of roughly 500—mostly young people—remains gathered at the Petofi statue under official loudspeakers blaring 19th century march music. (Comment: Success of the official loudspeakers in detaining opposition political speeches has been a theme most of the day. Evidently, the unofficial demonstrations’ organization is too cumbersome to permit simply moving the event to a site not equipped with official loudspeakers. The sole gap in loudspeaker coverage came earlier this afternoon in front of the parliament, where Gaspar Miklos Tamas was able to address a large crowd through a bullhorn unhindered by competing official loudspeakers.)

2. Individuals are still laying flowers at the base of the Petofi statue, at which the democratic opposition’s wreath remains undisturbed. There are lighted candles at the Batthyany Memorial, with a few curious onlookers leavening a heavy plainclothes police presence. Young people throughout the downtown shopping area are wearing Hungarian tri-colored cockades, the trademark of today’s official and unofficial demonstrations. There is heavy and visible police presence at Budapest’s other likely gathering-spots for demonstrations.

3. Comment: With Budapest thoroughly bedecked with flags—even on broken-down backstreets—and with official statements repeatedly referring to March 15 for the first time as a national day, today’s events represent an impressive gathering of opposition strength in the streets as well as a substantially successful exercise in official deflection and cooptation of opposition efforts. It will be interesting to see how this evening’s T.V. reports treat the day’s events, and learn the details of today’s detention of democratic opposition leaders.

Palmer

1. Source: Reagan Library, Rudolf Perina Files, Hungary—Substance 1988 (1). Confidential; Immediate. Sent for information to Eastern European posts, Moscow, Paris, and Vienna. Printed from a copy that was received in the White House Situation Room.
2. See Document 344.
3. March 15.