Twenty-five
years ago,
after more than 20 years of adventure and misery, the historic crown of St.
Stephen of Hungary, the embodiment of Hungarian statehood, was returned to
the Hungarian people by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. The crown and the
other jewels - the
scepter, cloak and the orb - were escorted to Budapest by a distinguished delegation
including Mr. And Mrs. Vance, Philip Kaiser, then Ambassador to Hungary,
Albert Szent-Györgyi, István Deák, Rabbi Arthur Schneier of the World
Jewish Congress and the Reverend George Higgins, Archbishop of Washington,
reflecting the wish of the American government that these sacred relics be returned,
not to the Hungarian state, but to the Hungarian people. The effort to
exclude this historic event from the realm of intergovernmental relations
carried a forceful message to Hungarians: that the country's first
steps toward a more liberal economy, private enterprise and democracy are being
noticed in the U.S.
We
must not forget the important role of the Hungarian emigration, although divided on the issue,
played in pressing the case that the crown belongs to the Hungarian people and the crown jewels
are best kept where they belong.
We
now also realize that the return of the crown to Hungary marked the beginning of a special relationship, a bond that has been
tried and proved durable many times over in the past quarter of a century. Today, the United
States and Hungary are close allies. As in the past and the future, the
Hungarian people stand by their fellow Americans in fostering democracy and
freedom and broadening the boundaries of the free world. Be it the
trans-Atlantic relationship, the war on terrorism, or the fight against
political extremism, Hungarians know that they owe it to their
history to play a meaningful role in these issues.
Today, on the
6th of January, 2003, Foreign Minister László Kovács talked to former President Jimmy Carter
on the telephone to thank him and his administration for this generous and bold step
of 25 years ago.
