A NATO és az 1956-os magyar menekültek
The NATO and the 1956 Hungarian Refugees

Summary/Abstract: For investigating the reaction of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to the 1956 Hungarian refugee crisis, the paper presents a synthesis based on source material from the NATO Archives (Brussels), as well as from the archives of the French foreign ministry (La Courneuve), the National Archives (Washington) and Archives of the United Nations Secretariat (New York), the European Office of the UN (Geneva). First, the author evokes the challenges of the NATO in the mid of the 1950s. Then he points out its attitude concerning the refugee situation in Europe before the Hungarian exodus. The reception of the 200.000 Hungarians in the Western World was an exceptionally successful international humanitarian action. The paper demonstrates that the most important component of this outcome was the political will of NATO governments, which – in part as a result of the ideological confrontation with the Soviets – ensured continued attention and support for the problem of the Hungarian refugees even once the waves of popular sympathy had receded in the host societies.

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