Point is, the Hungarian Revolution was one of the big markers in the Cold War.  Korea was over, the May 1953 uprising in East Berlin had been crushed, Stalin had left the scene (probably with a little help...) and Khruschev had not yet taken the reins himself.  The Hungarian uprising kind of made his ascendancy inevitable.  Sputnik was a year in the future, and even further off were the Berlin Wall and Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the long descent into Vietnam, Prague Spring, detente, the 70s and the 80s.

To me anyway, it always seemed that despite Republican Ike being President, and hard-core Cold Warriors being on both sides of the aisle in the Congress, for some reason the Democrats got the worse of the Cold War argument, particularly as regards not going to the aid of the noble Hungarians.  Setting aside, as political bashing always does, the logic that said (a) it was logistically impossible to help them as there was the minor issue of newly un-occupied, neutral Austria (vacated only the year before by Soviet and Western occupation) between Germany and Hungary and (b) a major crisis nearly-simultaneously going on in Suez (Israel, France and the UK v. Egypt), leading to the US putting a beating on the pound sterling to get the Brits in their place, and © the really minor issue that the Soviets had lots of nukes, too, and neither side had really worked out the logic of deterrence yet, the Republicans would so often wail and moan the Hungarians' sad fate (implied to have been all the Democrats' fault).  And use it as an example of why the US needed to be more aggressive in (a) building new weapons, (b) fighting in strange remote places, and © badmouthing those who would suggest anything other than goin' to fightin' wars as a possible solution to the international problems.  Diplomacy, to the Cold Warriors (and particularly the Republicans among them), was for girls and sissies.

Sound familiar?

Of course, I suppose the Republicans don't want to hear how, by and large (and this does not minimize the weight our NATO alliance and commitment to defending western Europe contributed, nor the weight of the West's economic superiority) the ultimate demolition of the Communist structures throughout the old Warsaw Pact came about because the people living there said "Enough."  Even in a totalitarian state, the government exists by the consent of the governed.  It's just that the consent may be twisted out of the governed, but even that can only go on for so long.  But, ultimately, the change came about not from the outside imposing it, but organically from the societies themselves.  

Which is probably why today's Republicans really don't want to talk about Hungary.  We're currently in the unfolding - one piece falling off at a time, albeit more quickly than before - of a debacle in Iraq.  And, at the core of that debacle, is the idea held so dear of the neo-cons that "freedom" and "democracy" could be imposed from outside.  The US would sweep in with its minimally-sized armies, kick out the evil overlords, catch the sweets and flowers tossed at them like so many Mardi Gras beads and dubloons, and pay for it from the revenues of boundless fountains of oil soon to flow.  Hungary and the end of the Cold War, 35 or so years from Hungarian Revolution to collapse of Soviet Union, stand quietly, repudiating the neo-con project to remake the Middle East.

And, even today, ironically I guess, Hungarian democracy is not a neat, smoothly functioning mechanism.  There have been a lot of electoral machinations lately, in the Rover fashion it seems, and the populace is upset.  They've recently taken to the streets, protesting.  German radio reported today, which I listened to as I finish this, that, on the edges of the official celebrations of the anniversary, there were pretty serious demonstrations.  Some of these had several thousands of demonstators, some turned violent.  The police went after them at one of the bridges which are a trademark of Budapest, using tear gas and water cannons, which appear to have led to several hundreds of injured protestors, but thankfully no deaths.

I kind of like the idea, that the 50th Anniversary of a popular uprising against an oppressive authoritarian government was marked by demonstrations against the current government.  Keeps fresh the memories "why".