Dealing with Dictators

The United States, Hungary, and East Central Europe, 1942-1989

By: Laszlo Borhi, Jason Vincz (Translator)

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Paperback | 1 September 2017

At a Glance

Paperback
562 Pages

Grade
17+

Dimensions(cm)
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.18

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Dealing with Dictators explores America's Cold War efforts to make the dictatorships of Eastern Europe less tyrannical and more responsive to the country's international interests. During this period, US policies were a mix of economic and psychological warfare, subversion, cultural and economic penetration, and coercive diplomacy. Through careful examination of American and Hungarian sources, Laszlo Borhi assesses why some policies toward Hungary achieved their goals while others were not successful. When George H. W. Bush exclaimed to Mikhail Gorbachev on the day the Soviet Union collapsed, "Together we liberated Eastern Europe and unified Germany," he was hardly doing justice to the complicated history of the era. The story of the process by which the transition from Soviet satellite to independent state occurred in Hungary sheds light on the dynamics of systemic change in international politics at the end of the Cold War.

Industry Reviews

[T]his invaluable reference work belongs on the library shelf of any Cold War scholar.

* Slavic Review *

Laszlo Borhi's Dealing with Dictators makes a valuable contribution from both a theoretical and empirical point of view to the history of communist regimes leading up to the end of the Cold War. . . . It is meticulously documented, drawing from Hungarian archives, US State Department archives, and US presidential libraries.

* H-Diplo *

"A tour de force of research and analysis, Laszlo Borhi's Dealing With Dictators has revived and reoriented our understanding of the import of United States foreign policies toward Hungary and East Central Europe during the Cold War."

-- Martin J. Sherwin,Professor of History at George Mason University * author (with Kai Bird) of the Pulitzer Prize biography, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy *

There are rare books that define an era. Borhi's Dealing with Dictators is second to none in helping us comprehend the difficult ups and downs of the U.S. - Hungarian bilateral relationship within the larger context of Cold War Central Europe. When it comes to the origins of the Cold War, Borhi is relentlessly anti-revisionist - it was the Soviets who built an empire in Eastern Europe to ruthlessly exploit the satellite economies. Dealing with Dictators concludes with an exhaustive chapter on Hungary's crucial role in ending the Cold War. This is international history writing at its best.

-- Gunter Bischof, Marshall Plan Professor of History * University of New Orleans *

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