The 100th Anniversary of the Establishment of U.S.-Hungary Diplomatic Relations

Hungarian-U.S. diplomatic relations will celebrate their centenary on the 29^th of August. The United States and Hungary signed a treaty establishing friendly relations on the 29^th of August, 1921. It entered into force on the 17^th of December.

The U.S. Legation was established in Budapest on the 26^th of December, 1921, with Commissioner Ulysses Grant-Smith as Chargé d’Affaires pro tempore.

Theodore Brentano was appointed as the first U.S. Minister to Hungary on the 10^th of February, 1922.

Count Laszlo Szechenyi presented his credentials as Hungary’s first Minister to the United States on the 10^th of January, 1922.

This year we commemorate the 100^th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and Hungary.  While our historical and cultural connections span a much longer period, the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1921 formalized the enduring bonds between our countries.

The United States is an immigrant country. Among the many ethnic groups who emigrated there, the Hungarians also made a significant contribution to its history. Mainly because among the emigrants, a larger proportion of the Hungarian population was enterprising, talented young people who have already shown results in some fields.

The relationship between the two countries has been hugely affected by the development of international power politics. In the first half of the 20^th century, the German orientation of Hungary’s leaders confronted the United States in two world wars. Between 1945 and 1990, our relations were defined by the Cold War between the Soviet-led “Eastern Bloc” and the Western world.

During World War II, the Crown was spirited out of Hungary to protect it from the Germans and the Soviets. On the 2^nd of May 1945, the Holy Crown and other jewels were handed over by a Hungarian Army Colonel to a U.S. Army Colonel. The U.S. Government stored it in hopes of returning it to the Hungarian people one day. President Jimmy Carter decided to return the Crown in 1978. It took a lot of political courage.

President George H.W. Bush gave a speech in Kossuth Square in 1989. On the 27^th of October 2020, on the occasion of the 30^th anniversary of the fall of the communist regime, the Government of Hungary and the U.S. Embassy in Budapest inaugurated the George Herbert Walker Bush Statue on Szabadság tér (Freedom Square) in Budapest, which was raised in honor of the 41^st President of the United States.