Musings On Two Wars & Two Olympics
The Russian invasion of Georgia recalls another war and another Olympics and the day the water turned blood red when Soviet invaders and Hungarian resisters faced off at the 1956 Summer Games.
In late October 1956, a student demonstration against Hungary’s Stalinist government grew into a nationwide revolt that was crushed by a large Soviet force in early November. Some 2,500 Hungarians were killed and 200,000 became refugees.
In an eerie echo of today’s conflict in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Western nations led by President Eisenhower condemned the Soviet aggression but stopped well short of coming to the aid of the Hungarians.
Which makes John McCain’s saber-rattling bloviations over the war in Georgia all the more ridiculous because even his addled mind should be able to process that this is not “a 3 a.m. moment” for an administration that has been so humiliatingly inept when it comes to foreign policy and far more adept at causing crises than defusing them.
Nor would it be such a moment if McCain was president. Besides which, “Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Ossetia” just doesn’t do it.
Lest anyone wonder whether Georgia should be admitted to NATO, the answer is a resounding “no” since the U.S. and other member nations have no interest in lifting a finger to defend it against a provocation that Russia has been itching to act on for quite some time under the Bush-inspired moniker of “regime change.”
Anyhow, the situation in 1956 was made worse because of Radio Free Europe broadcasts funded by the U.S. beseeching Hungarians to resist the Red Army that misleadingly suggested that NATO or the United Nations would intervene, while in another echo Georgians apparently are blaming the U.S. (with some justification) for their own dire straits.
The animosity between the Hungarians and Soviets was palpable when the 1956 Olympic Games opened in Melbourne in late November, which is late spring in Australia.
The Communist Hungarian flag with red star was vandalized and replaced by the flag adopted during the uprising, and tensions came to a boil on December 6 when the Hungarians and Soviets met in a semi-final water polo match in a stadium packed with Hungarian-born Australians.
Hungary, then a nation where water polo ranked only behind soccer in popularity, was the defending Olympic champion.
The matched was described to me a decade later by George Boardmann, a player on the Hungarian team who emigrated to the U.S. after defecting following the Olympics and became my water polo coach. It should be understood that there are few sports as physically demanding as water polo because of the nonstop play and the fact the swimmers are not allowed to touch the bottom or sides of the pool. That may explain why I never excelled at it.
The Hungarians agreed to a strategy of taunting the Soviet players in Russian, a language they had been forced to study in school.
From the opening gun, the match was extremely physical with kicks and punches exchanged under water. At one point the Hungarian captain, Dezso Gyarmati, caught a Russian opponent with a sucker punch, while Ervin Zádor scored two goals to the shouts of “Hajrá Magyarok!” (Go Hungarians!) from the rabid crowd.
With less than two minutes left in the second half and Hungary leading 4-0, Zador (small photo) was slugged by a Soviet player whom he had taunted and emerged from the pool with blood gushing from his face. The crowd went wild, police were called out to prevent a riot and the match was abandoned.
Hungary — broken at home but unbowed in Melbourne — was credited with the victory and went on to win the gold medal.
Fast forwarding to the here and now, what will happen should those defiant Georgians meet those bellicose Russians at a Beijing Games venue? It may not happen since Georgia apparently is considering bringing its athletes home.
8 Responses to “Musings On Two Wars & Two Olympics”
a wonderful story Shaun, thank you! I wish my dad was alive so I could read it to him, the old Magyar would be bursting with pride.
The Hungarians are old horsemen and swordsmen, a tribal people who are truly wild and lyrical and smart. There's an old saying that God had some barrels of passion left over after creation, and he divided it equally, pouring it into the bloodlines of all the horse people; the Irish, Scots, Italians, Spanish, Perians, Germans, Hungarians and the Brtis…any who remembered the love of white stallions and shiny mares running.
“…Ervin Zádor scored two goals to the shouts of “Hajrá Magyarok!” (Go Hungarians!) from the rabid crowd.”
In the old days, Hajra Magyarok! would have been a wild cry from the crowd (no doubt having had generous portions of Aussie-made Hungarian wine beforehand) to the Hungarian water polo players, meaning literally: Bring it on, you of the mighty ten tribes!
A little like, Remember the Alamo! lol. Or 'This is for mother, country, and apple pie! Take that and that you louse.” Or '54-40 or fight.' Or whatever those numbers are. But at any rate, an epithet, quite different from 'Kill those Raiders' or 'Kill those Broncos.' lol
dr.e
What McCain says about Georgia is irrelevant since he has zero chance of being president. I guess talking about McCain gives the MSM a reason to avoid looking at what Senator Obama is saying about Georgia.
A good question is how will a former community activist whose supports policies of give the young criminals what they want will handle the bullies of the world.
I also wonder how many other countries will figure out that from now until March 2009, they can do what they want since the U.S. is operating in a power vacuum.
As I read y our article Shaun, a report came in over the newswire saying Russia has called a halt to operations in Georgia, but that Medvedev is not pulling out troops. Reading Medvedev's motives or intents is like reading tea leaves. There is, incidentally, no call for cease fire. You know what that means.
I forgot to mention too that in the 1956 Hungarian uprising, the Hungarians believed truly that the USA was coming to save them, in part because Hungary had given the US so many of her sons and daughters to work the mines in Pennsylvania, losing hundreds of Magyars in mining accidents and explosions… but also because there were huge settlements of Hungarian refugees in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, on the East coast, in Toronto, et al. The Hungarians in Hungary felt sure the Americans would come.
When I was in Hungary recently, even now, all this time later, there are jokes about how the Americans were going to come to the aid of the Hungarians, who literally faced Russian tanks and fought the armored metal with their bare hands.
dr.e
It could be argues, I think, that Russia would have been more hesitant to act so forcefully in Georgia if we (and others) were not so bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. Similarly, it could be argued (and often is) that the Soviets would have been more hesitant to act so forcefully in Hungary in 1956 if the powers that were at the time (Britain and France) were not otherwise occupied with their Suez invasion.
Does saying the same thing in response to every post make you a troll or just annoying?
What McCain says about Georgia is irrelevant since he has zero chance of being president.
I'd love a toke off this dude's bong.
Among other delusions, this fellow still thinks the POTUS is inaugurated in March—must still be living in the sixties. It's been January 20th for quite a while now, but you just keep watching those ants crawling on the walls and keep on scratching your face.
daveinboca,
I know that the inaugural is January 20 but no administration gets up to speed the first week. I doubt that the administration is will have all of its political appointees in place before in the end of March. Changing from one party to another is a very slow process. That is why I mentioned March.
And you turn this additional aggression by Russia into a McCain-bashing and indirect-Bush-bashing screed?
You'd blame them (and Clinton because she voted for war against Hussein) for China's invasion of Taiwan during these Olympics if it had happened. [scowl]