Remembering November 4, 1956

October 23, 1996

Remembering November 4, 1956.
By Leslie T Eloed

Fifty years ago ten glorious days of Hungarian Freedom were drowned in blood on the streets of Budapest. On this fortieth anniversary I would like to bring to all of you freedom-loving fellow American Citizen, a message . . . My thoughts and feelings put so well into words by George Putnam on the tenth anniversary of the October 23, 1956 Hungarian Uprising.

In his speech Mr. Putnam said: "It could happen here". Today I feel: it did happened here, it is happening here. It took only one generation, thirty years since this speech. Are the "Liberals" the flag-bearers? I most certainly feel, that the answer to this question is a very firm: yes.

Mr. George Putnam was guest speaker at the tenths anniversary Hungarian Commemoration in the Santa Monica Auditorium. The following day I wrote Mr. Putnam requesting a copy of his speech. I quote from my letter to him:

"You and I both know so well the dangers of Communism, therefore I would appreciate the opportunity to copy and distribute your speech . . . (preferably before election day.) It is of great importance to the Hungarian people who know the dangers, that the American people be warned of the insidiousness of Socialism and of the havoc that can be wreaked by "compromise." Many of the trusting people with whom I speak in the course of my work feel that "peace at any price" and the ostrich approach will make everything alright . . . but the time is fast coming when a takeover from within can be made so easily because of this trust or ignorance or both, that it will afford too good a chance for the Communists to pass up."

And so it is now, that I find that under a "democratic" liberal government the United States resembles more an internationally controlled system, where the vocal minority rules and under the guise of "politically correct" slogans is selling us down the river, destroy the moral fiber, attack the churches and the faith in God, --just as the Communists did in the captive nations -- basic values this country was founded upon and stated in the Constitution. Communism in Hungary presented itself as a social-caring government, professed the principle of democratic centralism as well as the ideology of Godless Materialism. Think about it. What do we have here today?

So here is that thirty year old speech, more relevant today then at any other time in the history of the United States, on the eve of yet another election.
* * *
Santa Monica, October 23, 1966 California

IT COULD HAPPEN HERE.
by George Putnam

Thank you, Dr. András Pogány. It is with deep humility and gratification that I accept this great honor from the Hungarian Freedom Fighters.

Ten years ago, a prominent Hungarian Bishop went to radio Budapest and taking the microphone in his hands, appealed to the whole free world in these words:
"I ask you, in the name of Jesus Christ, to help us!"

Then, there was silence -- the horrible silence that told the world that Hungary's cry for freedom had been choked out by the bloody grip of Communism.

America should have hung her head in shame. The brave Hungarian people believed we would help -- that all they needed do was show their willingness to fight and we would spring to their aid. But we failed them in their hour of greatest need.

Thousands lay dead in the "Battle of Budapest." They fought our fight as well as their own -- the fight for lasting freedom.

The brave Hungarian people called for a black New Year's Eve in defiance of the Red Russians -- and in memory of the Hungarian dead. Hungarians turned out the lights early, and went to bed in silence that January1st, 1957. It was a period of national mourning, with food scarce, factories idle, production at a standstill. The coalmines, backbone of the Hungarian economy, worked at the barest minimum.

Fifty thousand Hungarians lay dead in makeshift graves. The stench of death was everywhere -- the terrible price paid by the Hungarian people in their battle for freedom.

But there where others -- thousands of them -- who fled the brutality of the Communists. We sent a cameraman to the scene to interview and talk with these brave Hungarian families who fled Communist suppression -- who reached out to us in America for a chance to live in peace.

My cameraman cabled from Munich:

"If you want to see real raw courage, look into the faces of these wonderful Hungarian people with whom I've been talking. Many of them have everything they own wrapped in a few handkerchiefs. All they ask is a chance to go to work and begin their lives all over again in a free land. Meet them. Greet them with love. They are a great people -- and they've been through hell."

And they came to us, from the cities, the farms, the rural communities -- they came by the thousands -- the old, the young, and those between -- all with one thing in common -- searching for a new home away from the brutality and suppression they had known under the Communists. A home of freedom and opportunity, with the wish that their young might grow up in a land that affords freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear, and freedom from want.

Our American boys away from their own families and homes, demonstrated to those freedom-seeking Hungarians the true spirit and meaning of the American Christmas. They were served a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings in Munich, Germany.

And then, the President of the United States instituted "Operation Safe Haven" (the United States Airlift of Hungarian refugees.) Thousands upon thousands of Hungarian people were flown to the United States. And realizing the desperate plight of these brave Hungarian people, we rolled up our sleeves and pitched in to find homes and jobs for hundreds of Hungarian refugees and their families. Many of us here this evening helped give those brave Hungarian people the will and the wherewithal to go forward. And in so doing, we waged our own personal war against Communism -- and reaffirmed our faith in the American way.Time Magazine honored the dedicated men and women who rebelled against Communism in Hungary, by naming as Man of the Year, "The Hungarian Freedom Fighter". People whose valiant struggle served as a high point in the free world's battle against the scourge of Communism!

This reporter was proud to receive one thousand three hundred fifty two verified offers of employment in Southern California for these Hungarian patriots. These efforts brought a commendation from the President of the United States.

Those who escaped were the fortunate ones. It is those who remained behind who suffered the wrath of the Communists. Mass trials were conducted. And in those trials, 2,500 Freedom Fighters were sentenced to death. Untold thousands were doomed to exile, were sent to Siberian labor camps, were imprisoned and suffered other inhumanities -- with or without trial.

And those who went to their graves seemed to utter this warning:

"You, who are yet free, must behold the awful truth -- there is no compromise possible with Communism. Unless it is overcome and vanquished, it will also destroy you."

These honored dead gave their lives. I take them at their word!

But today, the Russian leaders shout for the entire world to hear that the United States and its people are cutthroats and murderers, accusing us of all manner of things, going back to the two atomic bombs dropped by us to end World war Two.
It was in 1959 that our Congress recognized the desire of millions of people, enslaved by Communism, to regain liberty and independence. And thus Congress enacted the "Captive Nations Resolution". Congress found that the imperialist policies of the Kremlin led to the subjugation of the national independence of eighteen European nations!

There were high-flown words in that Congressional Resolution!

"It is fitting for the United States to make clear to the peoples of those Captive Nations that we share their aspirations for the recovery of their freedom and independence. It is imperative that we act to proclaim "Captive Nations Week" because of the continuing need to direct attention to the light of the peoples under the heavy yoke of Communism."

Yes, high sounding words!

The world moves on rapidly for those who are free. But time drags slowly, heavily, with the oppressed. There always is a hue and cry from without when a nation is crushed by a bloody invader. But soon the protests give way to murmur, and international listlessness takes over, as man returns to his daily existence. And soon the freedom and the cause of freedom of the oppressed nation becomes a matter approaching shameful indifference.We shed tears for a moment, tears for the oppressed. But then we hurry off to the football game, or fiddle with the television set. We call it "relaxation". Yet all too often it is a tragic escape from reality.Tonight, I ask you to think of the people behind the Iron Curtain -- those who barely have enough to eat -- whose land and homes and possessions have been stolen from them in the name of Communism.Think of the unsmiling faces of the tragic people of the Captive Nations. The sad faces of those people, and these flags representing them, bear mute testimony to the engulfing hopelessness brought into their lives by the scourge of Communism.

Hear the voices of those enslaved people as they cry out to us tonight. Hear their anguished cries for help, America -- and for the freedom we take for granted. They know how fortunate we are, even if some of us do not. They know the pitfalls -- the dangers -- and they know it could happen here!Yes, it can happen in our beloved America, where the head of the Communist Party in the United States is allowed to parade up and down the land and across our college campuses, and loudly proclaim:"I dream of the hour when the last Congressman is strangled to death on the guts of the last preacher. And since the Christians seem to love to sing about blood, why not give them a little of it. Slit the throats of their children and drag them over the mourners' bench and the pulpit, and allow them to drown in their own blood. And then see whether they enjoy singing hymns." On one twelve day speaking tour, Gus Hall, the person who spoke those words, delivered 37 speeches, most of them on University campuses.

Yes, it can happen here, where Benjamin Davis, a Harvard graduate and top ranking Communist, convicted for conspiring to overthrow our government, is greeted by the Harvard Law School Dean as follows:

"I throughly accept you as an American," and goes on to tell 600 students present that "Benjamin Davis", the Communist, "must be respected for his conviction and his determination."

And yes, it can happen here, America -- if we continue to allow left wing speakers to tell our fifth and sixth grade students that the war in Vietnam is an "unjust war", and that the United States is guilty of aggression!

It was János Kádár who said:

"Everyone who is not against the Communists is with them."

And don't be confused as to the difference between Communism and Socialism.

The two are bedfellows. Winston Churchill called Socialism:

"The philosophy of failure and the gospel of envy."

Helen Wood Birnie, a Communist who served the F.B.I., and since has distinguished herself as a great American, has said:

"The difference between Socialism and Communism is a very simple one. It is the difference between seduction and rape."

The enemy of the free world, the enemy of America, is not the American Legion, or the Veterans of Foreign Wars, or the Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution, or the John Birch Society. The threat to us now is Communism!
Communism is not only a disease of poverty and chaos -- Communism is a disease of the mind. And anyone who calls the John Birch Society a greater threat to California and America than Communism suffers from a diseased mind.

One who escaped to the United States tells us: the same conditions exist in America today that preceded the downfall of his country. He says:

"Everybody took for granted, because we were a freedom-loving people, we would never lose freedom. We paid little attention to pro-Communists, organized and infiltrated into everything in our land . . . Too busy with business, professions, sports, movies, to realize the sad price for our neglect."

"One morning fate came upon us like a shot out of hell. We were helpless. Machine guns lined our streets. The government, army, schools, communications -- everything -- taken over by the Communists during the night, and while we slept."

Tonight, as the Communists so loudly proclaim that we are cutthroats and murderers, let us remind the Russian Communists that they conducted a genocide that took six t seven million lives -- that they engineered the systematic starvation of millions of Ukrainians -- that they uprooted the Catholic Church and destroyed the Synagogues -- that they are the enemies of the Christian or the Jew, or anyone who believes in God -- that they killed 50,000 Hungarians during the Hungarian revolt.

But it has not stopped. The Communists today are torturing, terrorizing, and killing those who stand in their way -- those who dare to raise a hand in defense of freedom and liberty.There is no difference between these crimes against humanity today in Vietnam, and those by the Nazis in World War Two. It is happening NOW.

Yet, there are those who say we must "live with, coexist with" Communism -- while our brothers remain in slavery.

Tonight, as I drove to this gathering, I heard a report on the radio concerning "improved conditions" in Hungary on this 10th Anniversary. But my friends, there is no political change in Eastern Europe, or elsewhere in the Communist world. And our brothers remain enslaved by Communism.

Yet, we are encouraged to increase our contacts with the Communists, our trade with them, and to extend long-term credit to Communist dominated nations -- while Communist bullets kill our men in Vietnam.Each of our leaders, in turn, has believed that he had some unique or peculiar talent with which to deal with the Communists. But each has failed!

So now it is time to tell the world we are willing to discuss outstanding issues with the Communists only after they have set our brothers free. And that we are only beginning with the battle for Vietnam -- that we will not rest until we have set all people and their nations free!

It is time this nation and its leaders begin to act for the very survival of America. It is time we cast aside criticism and act forcefully in solving our problems. If we continue to submit to "popularity polls" and live by "images", we will never be able to use our power effectively to back our diplomacy.The world still respects strength. We appear to lack the will to use it. Power can be a deterrent to Communist expansion. But the power must be real, and it must come from a position of strength and determination. The ancient Chinese had a phrase for it:

"Use power to curb power."

We have the power. All we need is the will to use it. We have the cause, and history will prove us right -- if only we will act! We are engaged in a real war that has got to be fought and won!Listen America, to the voices, living and dead, of those brave men and women of -- Albania -- Armenia -- Azerbaijan -- Bulgaria -- Cuba -- Cossackia -- Czechoslovakia -- East Germany -- Estonia -- Georgia -- Hungary -- Idel-Ural -- Latvia -- Lithuania -- Mainland China -- Mongolia -- North Korea -- North Vietnam -- Poland -- Rumania -- The Ukraine -- Tibet -- Turkistan -- White Ruthenia -- Yugoslavia -- and others.Yet those brave people, who have lost their freedom, know that the choice is between God and Godlessness -- freedom and slavery -- life or death.

Listen to their voices, America -- and you will act. They cry out to us!

Do we hear their voices tonight?

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