We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017
The period of the 1930s has been called the time of the “Diplomatic War.“ During these years Nazi Germany seized the initiative in international affairs and tried to impose its will on the other states of Europe. The reaction of Britain and France to the threat of German expansion was appeasement until March 1939, when, with Hitler’s occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, it became clear that the Führer’s aims were not limited to the German-inhabited areas. Thus the states of East Central Europe found themselves in a highly vulnerable position: in the West they faced increasing political and economic pressure from the Reich; in the East there was the Soviet Union with its very exportable Communist ideology which would have undermined the political and social order of all these states. In this situation the East Central European states all sought some way of being independent from their two powerful neighbors.
1. Seton-Watson, Hugh, Eastern Europe Between the Wars, 1918-1941 (New York, 1967; first pub. 1945), p. 382.Google Scholar
2. Roman, Debicki, Foreign Policy of Poland, 1919-1939 (New York, 1962), p. 112–13.Google Scholar
3. For discussion of the radical and conservative wings of the Government Party which dominated Hungarian politics during the interwar years see Istvan, Deak, “Hungary,” in Rogger, Hans and Weber, Eugen, eds., The European Right (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1965), pp. 364–405Google Scholar; and Macartney, C. A., October Fifteenth : A History of Modern Hungary, 1929-1945, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1961), 1 : 28–29, 124-32.Google Scholar
4. Minutes of conversation between Prince Paul and Ciano, Mar. 25, 1937. Cited in Hoptner, J. B., Yugoslavia in Crisis, 1934-1941 (New York, 1962), p. 83.Google Scholar
5. Wandycz, P. S., France and Her Eastern Allies, 1919-1925 : French-Czechoslovak- Polish Relations from the Paris Peace Conference to Locarno (Minneapolis, 1962), p. 191–92.Google Scholar
6. Laszlo Zsigmond, ed., Diplomáciai iratok Magyarország kulpolitikdjdhoz, 1936- 1945, vol. 2 : Magda Ádám, ed., A müncheni egyezmeny litrejotte és Magyarorszdg kulpolitikája, 1936-1938 (Budapest, 1965), no. 17 (hereafter cited as DIMK).
7. Microfilms of the Captured German Documents, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (hereafter cited as GD). Moltke to Foreign Office, Warsaw, Feb. 12, 1938, 750/ 353929-936.
8. DIMK, vol. 1 : Lajos, Kerekes, ed., A Berlin-Róma tengely kialakulása es Ausztria annexidja, 1936-1938 (Budapest, 1962), nos. 354, 357Google Scholar; vol. 2, no. 123, n. 115; Unsigned Secret Memorandum on conversation with Csaky from the German Legation in Budapest to Foreign Office, Budapest, Feb. 1938, GD, 750/353975-978; Erdmannsdorff to Foreign Office on conversation with Kánya, Budapest, Feb. 15, 1938, GD, 1454/ D600767-770; Jan Szembek, Journal, 1933-1939 (Paris, 1952), Feb. 16, 1938. Other interpretations of these talks may be found in Dreisziger, Nandor A. F., Hungary's Way to World War II (Astor Park, Fla., and Toronto, 1968), pp. 72–74Google Scholar; and Macartney, October Fifteenth, 1 : 209.
9. DIMK, vol. 1, no. 382.
10. Jozef, Beck, Final Report (New York, 1957), p. 143.Google Scholar
11. Malcolm, Muggeridge, ed., Ciano's Diary, 1937-1938 (London, 1952)Google Scholar, Mar. 9, 1938.
12. Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918-1945 (Washington, D.C., 1949-66), series D, vol. 5, no. 64 (hereafter cited as DGFP),
13. DIMK, vol. 1, no. 448.
14. State Department Records, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (hereafter cited as SD). Minister in Hungary to Secretary of State, Mar. 23, 1938, 863.00/1648.
15. DIMK, vol. 1, no. 408.
16. Pester Lloyd, morning edition, Mar. 20, 1938, “Der Anschluss und das Sudetendeutschtum“; morning edition, Mar. 29, 1938, “Das tschechische Problem“; and evening edition, Apr. 14, 1938, “Italien und das Schicksal der Tschecho-Slowakei.“
17. Pester Lloyd, evening edition, Apr. 25, 1938, “Die Vollversammlung der Ungarischen Revisionsliga.“
18. Mackensen to Foreign Office, Berlin, Sept. 21, 1936, GD, 1060/426639-643.
19. DIMK, vol. 2, no. 36.
20. Ibid., vol. 1, no. 2S4.
21. Ibid., vol. 2, no. 83; Pochhammer to Foreign Office, Bucharest, Sept. 1, 1937, GD, 1060/426766; Pester Lloyd, Apr. 19, 1937, evening edition; Dreisziger, Hungary's Way, pp. 64-65.
22. DIMK, vol. 2, no. 279; DGFP D, vol. 5, nos. 141, 216; Erdmannsdorff to Foreign Office, Budapest, June 29, 1937, GD, 1060/426738-742.
23. Text of the communiqué is in Documents on International Affairs, 1938, ed. Monica Curtis, 2 vols. (London, 1942-43), 1 : 284.
24. Text of both parts of the agreement is in DIMK, vol. 2, no. 301 a and b.
25. Magyar Nemzet, Aug. 30, 1938, Sandor Peth6, “Egy utazás v6g“
26. DGFP D, vol. 2, no. 383.
27. Weizsacker to German Legation in Prague, Berlin, Aug. 26, 1938, GD, 13/19081.
28. DIMK, vol. 2, no. 279.
29. Pester Lloyd, morning edition, Aug. 24, 1938, “Ungarn und die Kleine Entente.“
30. Chargé d'Affaires in Hungary to Secretary of State, Aug. 26, 1938, SD, 770.00/572.
31. The question arises why Hitler should have been interested in Hungarian cooperation with Germany in “solving” the Czechoslovak question, when he obviously needed no military assistance. The answer lies in Hitler's plan on how to proceed against Czechoslovakia. In a directive for Fall Griin, the German code name for plans of aggression against Czechoslovakia, Hitler stated that Germany could not attack without an excuse, for this would arouse hostile world opinion and might lead to intervention of the Western powers. He therefore planned to use the Hungarian minority as well as the other nationalities along with the German minority to create a situation in which it would appear that Germany was occupying Czechoslovakia to restore order (DGFP D, vol. 2, no. 221 and also nos. 133, 175). Hitler was willing to bribe the Hungarians with vague promises of territorial acquisition in order to obtain their collaboration in this scheme.
32. Hungarian record of Horthy's talks with Keitel, Beck, Brautschitsch, Hitler, and Goring, August 1938, Hungarian Collection, World War II Records Division, National Archives, Alexandria, Virginia.
33. DIMK, vol. 2, no. 292.
34. Hungarian record of Horthy's talks with Keitel, Beck, Brautschitsch, Hitler, and Goring, August 1938, Hungarian Collection; DGFP D, vol. 2, nos. 402, 390, 392; Dreisziger, Hungary's Way, pp. 87-91; Macartney, October Fifteenth, 1 : 238-48.
35. Szembek, Journal, 1933-1939, Sept. 8, 1938.
36. DIMK, vol. 2, no. 338.
37. The Duchy of Teschen had been in dispute between Poland and Czechoslovakia since the end of the First World War. The Poles claimed three districts on ethnic grounds, while the Czechs maintained historic claims to the whole area. In 1920, at the height of the Polish-Soviet war, the Conference of Ambassadors divided it between Poland and Czechoslovakia. The Poles were very bitter about this, because they believed the Czechs had taken unfair advantage of them.
38. DIMK, vol. 2, no. 343.
39. Ibid., nos. 364, 380; DGFP D, vol. 2, no. 586.
40. Ciano's Diary, Sept. 19, 1938.
41. Ibid., Sept 29-30, 1938.
42. DGFP D, vol. 2, no. 675.
43. Henryk, Batowski, “Le voyage de Joseph Beck en Roumanie en octobre 1938,” Annuaire polonais des affaires Internationales, 1959-1960 (Warsaw, 1960), p. 148.Google Scholar
44. Woodward, E. L. and Butler, Rohan, eds., Documents on British Foreign Policyp 1919-1939, series 3, vol. 3 (London, 1950), no. 101 Google Scholar; Cienciala, Anna M., Poland and the Western Powers, 1938-1939 (London and Toronto, 1968), pp. 140–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
45. Copy of the Hungarian Note, Oct. 2, 1938, GD, 1055/423050.
46. DGFP D, vol. 4, no. 22.
47. Interview with the former Hungarian military attach in Berlin, Kalman Hárdy.
48. Pester Lloyd, morning edition, June 19, 1938, “Ungarns Flügel“; Chargé d'Affaires in Hungary to Secretary of State, June 27, 1938, SD, 864.248/7.
49. Chargá d'Affaires in Hungary to Secretary of State, July 12, 1938, SD, 762.64/106.
50. DIMK, vol. 2, nos. 487b, 488.
51. Ibid., nos. 495, 497, 501, 512, 530; Dreisziger, Hungary's Way, p. 96; Cienciala, Poland and the Western Powers, pp. 153-54.
52. DIMK, vol. 2, no. 572; Cienciala, Poland and the Western Powers, pp. 160-61.
53. DGFP D, vol. 5, no. 45.
54. Ibid., Gyula, Juhasz, Magyarorsság kölpolitikája, 1919-1945 (Budapest, 1969), pp. 185–86 Google Scholar; Elizabeth, Wiskemann, The Rome-Berlin Axis (London and New York, 1949), pp. 131–32.Google Scholar
55. DIMK, vol. 3 : Adám, Magda, ed., Magyarorsság kiilpolitikája, 1938-1939 (Budapest, 1970), no. 228.Google Scholar
56. DGFP D, vol. 4, no. 45.
57. Cienciala, Poland and the Western Powers, p. 153.
58. Ibid., pp. 160-61; Batowski, “Voyage de Joseph Beck,” pp. 137-60.
59. DIMK, vol. 2, nos. 529, 533.
60. Ibid., nos. 533, 575, 597; DGFP D, vol. 4, nos. 61, 62; Cienciala, Poland and the Western Powers, pp. 158-59.
61. DIMK, vol. 2, no. 551.
62. Cienciala, Poland and the Western Powers, p. 161; Dreisziger, Hungary's Way, p. 97.
63. Cienciala, Poland and the Western Powers, pp. 162-63; DGFP D, vol. S, no. 81.
64. DIMK, vol. 2, no. 616.
65. Ibid., no. 614.
66. Text of the Vienna Award is in DIMK, vol. 2, nos. 621, 622; and DGFP D, vol. 4, no. 99.
67. DIMK, vol. 3, nos. 12, 38; DGFP D, vol. 4, no. 118.
68. DIMK, vol. 3, no. 33; Report on the situation in Subcarpathian Ruthenia to the Reichsfuhrer SS, Berlin, Nov. 22, 1938, GD, 1319/D499186-188. For the events surrounding plans to attack Subcarpathian Ruthenia, see also the accounts by Dreisziger, Hungary's Way, pp. 97-99; Macartney, October Fifteenth, 1 : 311-14; and Aladar, Kis, Magyarorssg kiilpolitikdja a msodik vildghdboru eldestijen (Budapest, 1963), p. 33–43.Google Scholar
69. DIMK, vol. 3, no. 38.
70. DGFP D, vol. 4, no. 122.
71. Kis, Magyarorszdg kiilpolitikája, p. 36.
72. DIMK, vol. 3, no. 51; Ciano's Diary, Nov. 20, 1938.
73. Notes on telephone conversation with Italian Ambassador Attolico, Berlin, Nov. 21, 1938, GD, 1319/D499180.
74. Ciano's Diary, Nov. 20, 1938.
75. Ibid.; texts of the German and Italian Notes are in DIMK, vol. 3, nos. 58, 59.
You have
Access
