Statement by the President Regarding Hungarian National Holiday

MARCH FIFTEENTH is a day of special significance to the Hungarian people. As a traditional Hungarian national holiday commemorating the Hungarian people's struggle of 1848-49 against foreign domination it symbolizes their enduring aspirations for freedom and national independence.

It is most fitting at this time, when the world has again witnessed the courageous sacrifice of the Hungarian people for these cherished ideals, that we should affirm our understanding of the meaning which this day has in the hearts and minds of Hungarians everywhere.

The struggle for human freedom has been a vital force in the history and progress of civilized mankind. In our highly interdependent modern society this struggle, wherever waged, has necessarily become the common concern of all humanity. Today, as in the time of Louis Kossuth, the American people deeply sympathize with the just demands of the Hungarian people for freedom and independence.

The suffering which the Hungarian people have undergone for the sake of these principles has forged an unbreakable bond with the free world community. The Hungarian people have in their life-blood written anew the message that an alien and unwelcome ideology cannot forcibly be imposed on a free-spirited people. When attempted, the inevitable result is the complete rejection of that ideology and hatred of those who seek to impose such tyranny upon others. In recognition of this truth which the Hungarian people have demonstrated, we can do no less than express our confident hope and our profound belief that the processes of enlightenment and justice among men and nations will triumph in the end in Hungary and in all other oppressed nations.