Eisenhower, NATO responsible for failure of 1956 Hungarian revolution [video 86min]

In marking the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution, the Embassy of Hungary hosted a presentation by Professor Charles Gati on his new book, Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt. Gati details the 1956 Hungarian revolution and the international political environment at the time. He argues that Hungary's suppression by the USSR was a key event in the Cold War and suggests that the revolution could have succeeded if NATO and president Eisenhower had been more decisive. Gati is a political scientist who fled his native Hungary during the 1956 revolt, and is now Senior Adjunct Professor of European Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He has served as the Senior Adviser at the State Department Policy Planning staff in the early 1990's. He is the author of The Bloc That Failed: Soviet-East Relations in Transition, and Hungary and the Soviet Bloc.