Page:NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SURVEY 19 HUNGARY COUNTRY PROFILE CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110037-3.pdf/29

 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110037-3

1966
 * April
 * Kadar speech at the Soviet 23d Party Congress endorses Soviet policies, blasts Chinese and Albanians.
 * May
 * Party Central Committee approves resolution on economic reforms to be implemented between 1968 and 1970; Party Secretary Nyers announces that political reforms will be considered by Ninth Party Congress in November.
 * November-December
 * Ninth Congress of Hungarian Socialist Workers Party is held in Budapest; Central Committee powers are increased; Central Auditing Committee and candidate membership in the party and Central Committee are abolished.

1967
 * April
 * Government changes are announced; Jeno Fock replaces Gyula Kallai as Premier as economic experts move into top government positions.
 * May
 * Regime organizes destructive anti-Vietnam demonstrations at U.S. Embassy in Budapest.
 * July
 * Hungary hosts Communist summit discussions of support for Arabs.
 * September
 * Hungarian-Soviet treaty of mutual aid and friendship is renewed.
 * November
 * U.S. Ambassador presents credentials in Budapest, completing U.S. side of 1966 agreement to upgrade diplomatic representative to the ambassadorial level.

1968
 * January
 * Hungary's economic reform (New Economic Mechanism) is inaugurated.
 * February
 * Hungary hosts preparatory session for the World Communist Conference.
 * March
 * Premier Jeno Fock pays state visit to France.
 * April
 * Party daily announces support for Czechoslovakia's de-Stalinization campaign.
 * June
 * Debate in Secretariat over continued support of Czechoslovaks is settled in favor of continued support.
 * July
 * Kadar argues for moderate course at Warsaw meeting of hardline regimes alarmed at developments in Czechoslovakia. Kadar signs joint letter to Dubcek regime warning of excesses.
 * August
 * Kadar meets Dubcek on 18 August in last-ditch attempt to counsel gradualism and is rebuffed. Kadar joins hardliners in sending troops into Czechoslovakia on 20 August.
 * September
 * Hungarian leaders publicly reassert their intention to continue gradual domestic reforms in Hungary.
 * Hungarian ambassador to United States arrives in Washington.

1969
 * March
 * Joint party-government meeting extends Kadar's gradual reform policies.
 * Writers Union Congress marks rapprochement between Kadar regime and liberal authors who join regime organization.

1970
 * January
 * Minister of Interior Andras Benkei calls for reforms limiting powers of secret police.
 * November
 * Tenth Congress of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party is held in Budapest. Kadar wins low-keyed endorsement of domestic reforms and silences critics who disturbed preparations for the congress with complaints about effects of internal liberalization. Brezhnev attends congress and gives Kadar a general—but vague—endorsement.

1971
 * February
 * Matyas Rákosi, Stalinist party boss of the 1950's, dies in exile in the U.S.S.R.
 * May
 * National elections are held. As first test of new election reform, elections prove to be generally disappointing in extending limits of popular choice and participation.
 * July
 * Hungary joins in Warsaw Pact polemics against Romania, Yugoslavia, and Albania for their ties with China. Hungarian-Romanian rapprochement is temporarily halted as a result.
 * September
 * Cardinal Mindszenty leaves refuge in U.S. Embassy, Budapest, for residence in Vienna.

1972
 * February
 * Economic and political differences with Soviet Union surface. Kadar and Fock go to Moscow in February and March to smooth over problems.

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110037-3