Ahogy egy amerikai látta a forradalmi Magyarországot 1919-ben
Revolutionary Hungary in 1919 – as Seen by an American

Summary/Abstract: The article introduces a diary from 1919 written by Nicholas Roosevelt, journalist and diplomat, who served during the Paris Peace Conference as a member of the Coolidge Mission, which had Vienna as its seat and gathered information about Austria and the other countries in the neighborhood. Based upon his experiences and the diary entries that he wrote, we are face to face with original, firsthand observations about the immediate postwar situation in Central Europe. By accident, Roosevelt was in Budapest when the Hungarian Soviet Republic was proclaimed in March 1919, which adds to the suspense and drama. The language of the diary is interesting, not difficult to read, and often humorous, although sometimes politically not correct in the twenty-first-century sense, as it contains anti-Semitic opinion, and sentiments of American superiority toward Central and Eastern European peoples. However, it gives many a sharp characterization about leading figures of the era, since basically everybody that mattered is men-tioned in one way or another on the pages, from Colonel House to Michael Károlyi, from President Wilson to Pál Teleki. The diary is an important though small addition to our collective knowledge of these months – through the eyes of an American officer.

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