I just think the revolution was a legitimate response to these grievances, and the fact that Western propaganda helped to foment it doesn’t delegitimize it. The CIA’s role doesn’t negate the essentially democratic nature of the revolution or the heavy-handed repression carried out by the Soviets. In my opinion your interpretation removes the Hungarians’ agency, and they become proxies rather than people fighting for their own political freedom and material conditions. It gives the impression that sending tanks into the streets of Budapest, and later to prevent a worker committee meeting from happening, was ok because Western Imperialism.
If you think that restoration of capitalism, which is what they were trying to accomplish was legitimate then there’s really nothing else to say to you. And you’re entitled to your opinion which conveniently ignores the power of western imperialism and what happened historically when it wasn’t countered with force.
I just think the revolution was a legitimate response to these grievances, and the fact that Western propaganda helped to foment it doesn’t delegitimize it. The CIA’s role doesn’t negate the essentially democratic nature of the revolution or the heavy-handed repression carried out by the Soviets. In my opinion your interpretation removes the Hungarians’ agency, and they become proxies rather than people fighting for their own political freedom and material conditions. It gives the impression that sending tanks into the streets of Budapest, and later to prevent a worker committee meeting from happening, was ok because Western Imperialism.
If you think that restoration of capitalism, which is what they were trying to accomplish was legitimate then there’s really nothing else to say to you. And you’re entitled to your opinion which conveniently ignores the power of western imperialism and what happened historically when it wasn’t countered with force.
I don’t think they were trying to restore capitalism. That’s kind of what my whole critique hinges on.
The fact that the CIA was associating with them is direct proof that they were.