(In Search of, . .cont. from R 1) is a former Vietnam peacenik it was Middle Germany, and different from all other politi- from Boston who later aban- there are the lost lands to the cians? In my Sept. 1992 article, doned the peace cause for fear real East, but that’s another and I mentioned a possible clue: that American non-intervention sadder story). But in all this Nat Hentoff, a soft Zionist, call- might spell lack of total U.S. reaching for a place in the sun, ed A1 Gore during the 1988 support for Israel. We know one oppressed and despised campaign, ”the Senator from that, ever since he purchased ethnic group remains immobile, Likud.” But that’s still much the New Republic, the one motif and no one seems to care: I too vague and broad a brush. underlying the allegedly vast speak of that marvelous and Well, I haven’t found the an- spectrum of ideological diversity ancient people, the Hungarians. swer yet, but some crucial hints in the magazine (all the way No banners wave for the resto- for the discerning come in an from left neo-con to center neo- ration of justice to the Hungar- amusing article in the Wushing- con) is total, all-out support for ians; undoubtedly, achievement ton Post. (Lloyd Grove, “Hail to the State of Israel. of such justice would be in- the Veep“ (Jan. 20)). It seems So where are we? Surely not convenient to the New World that the powerful left neo-con very far, if we have to conclude Order, an order that is ground- Marty Peretz, publisher of the that Marty Peretz equals, is ed squarely on the “territorial New Republic, threw a gala in- identical with, all of American integrity” of borders as they ex- augural party for A1 Gore, an- Jewry: Or is this somehow the isted before 1989 or 1991; but nouncing on the invitation a key? In our continuing quest, heck, the Croats and Slovenes ”fanfare in honor of A1 and we welcome any clues from our happily got away with such Tipper Gore.” Peretz, whose readers. breaches in ”territorial integri- magazine had featured an impu- ty,” and there is no reason why dent ”Clinton Suck-Up Watch.” the Hungarians cannot do the NR’s editors, who pride them- same. selves on their alleged diversity, But What About Just as Germany was shat- feistiness, volubility, and inde- tered and torn apart by the pendence, grew oddly taciturn The Hungarians? monstrous Treaty of Versailles when quizzed about the strange by M.N.R. in 1919, so Hungary, also bur- romance of NR with Gore. “I dened with phony ”war guilt” won’t talk to you”, said Mike Since the collapse of the des- for World War I by the victorious Kinsley; ”I didn’t come here to potic centralizing USSR, we all and vengeful Entente powers be put on the spot,” said Mickey know that nationality after (Britain & France), was carved Kaus; ”I think I’ll dodge this once-submerged nationality up by the equally monstrous one,” said the usually intrepid has arisen to seek, and often and corollary Treaty of Trianon Jacob Weisberg. And indeed, it achieve, ethnic justice at long the following year. In rewriting turns out that Peretz, who hung last. RRR has been in the fore- the map of Europe after World out on Gore’s campaign plane front of the clamor for ethnic War I, the Wilsonian slogan of and banned publication of vir- justice and self-government, ”national self-determination’’ tually any criticism of Gore in from the Slovenes to the Abkha- for each ethnic group was used the pages of the New Republic, zians, from the Chechens to the like the Orwellian slogan in has been a good buddy of Gore’s Croats. We have tried to track Animal Farm: ethnic groups dis- ever since the mid-sixties, when all of them, and to sort out their covered that some were more Peretz was an instructor at Har- often tangled conflicts. Gener- equal than others; some ethnic vard and Gore was his favorite ally, they have done pretty well; groups were set by the post- student. even the most despised and op- war order to rule over others. OK, so what do we know? pressed of all, the Germans, Poor Hungary was shorn of We know that Marty Peretz, have achieved the unity of fully one-third of their ethnic who made the smart career West and what was falsely call- and linguistic brethren. And, move of marrying an heiress, ed ”East” Germany (actually, after all the vicissitudes of the 3 March1993 ~~ ~~ ~ next seventy years, this situation lected problem of Carpatho- regarded by the ”pro-Western” still obtains. Hungary now is Ruthenia, the eastern tail grab- (Le. Social Democrat) Hungarian Hungary after Trianon; several ted from Hungary by the Czechs establishment, plus the Social hundred thousand Hungarians after World War I. After World Democrats of the Ntw York Times groan under Slovak (instead of War 11, this land was incorpor- and the rest of the U.S. received Czech) tyranny in southern ated into the western Ukraine, opinion. Like all Social Demo- Slovakia; and the Hungarians Ukraine claiming that these crats, who hate and revile all who people the northern Vojvo- were long-lost Ukrainians. I nationalism except that of the dina are now suffering under understand that the Ruthenians U.S. and Israel, these groups direct Serb rule, after previous- are beginning to make noises fear and loathe these national- ly enjoying semi-autonomous about independence, of want- ists, the youth being denounced status. And most grievous of all ing out of the Ukraine. In any as ”skinheads” simply.because is the status of legendary Tran- case, it seems that Hungarian the teen-age lads like to wear sylvania, the land of Dracula and ethnic claims to this small area their hair crew-cut. other classic vampires. Transyl- are fairly weak. It’s clear that Hungarians will vania was torn from the Hun- But, in any case, why is noth- never achieve their true place in garian bosom at Trianon and ing more said and done about the sun so long as their rulers given to “pro-Western” Ro- Restoring Hungary? Hungary’s are more interested in currying mania, and Stalin put it back the tcmitory should definitely be favor with the United States same way after World War 11. expanded to include: southern government than they are in Is Transylvania ethnically Slovakia, the northern Vojvo- justice for themselves. Hungarian or Romanian? Both dina in Serbia, and something (Once again, I take the op- nationalities are in this land, like two-thirds of Transylvania. portunity to declare that I am and it is obviously a matter of H!ungarians arise! not a descendant of, related to, much dispute. The distinpsh- Of course, there are national- or connected in any way, with ed historian Bela Kiraly, a top ist stirrings in Hungary; techni- any of the ethnic groups I have general in Hungary who escaped cally these are irredentist, dedi- celebrated in RRR. Except in to the West after the heroic and cated to redeeming unredeemed spirit, I am not Hungarian nor a failed Revolution of 1956, told lands lost to an ethnic national- Croat nor an Abkhazian.) H me, when I asked him about ity. The great playwright Istvan ethnic boundaries in Transyl- Czurka, leader of a nationalist vania: ”I hate to say this, but faction of the ruling party in Hider’s imposed boundary was Hungary, is calling for such a Coping With the probably about the best solu- movement. More militantly, tion.” The point is that, during agitation is led by the ”1956 Inaugural World War 11, both Hungary Anti-Fascist and Anti-Bolshevik M.N.R. and Romania had right-wing Association”, headed by the by governments friendly to Ger- artist Istvan Porubszky, who had It was an Inaugural from many, so that Hitler could afford fled to Canada after 1956. The Hell. The big issue that faced to be ”objective” and concen- 1956 Association is also organi- me, now that our Jacobin Fes- trate on ethnic justice between zing teen-age youth, called the tival has burgeoned from In- the two. Hitler granted northern National Conservative-Thinking augural Day to Inaugural Eve to Transylvania to Hungary, and Boys, who listen to lectures on Inaugural Week, was how to southern to Romania. Friends Hungarian history, celebrate stay sane during this living of mine claim, however, that statues of the turul, a mytho- nightmare. As a political junkie, this short-changed Hungary logical eagle-like bird that sym- couldn’t stop reading the pa- which should have obtained mlizes Hungarian unity, and pers altogether, but I could skim either the northern two-thirds, shout ”Down with Trianon!” bhrough my five daily papers, or even all, of Transylvania. Only one guess how these keeping a keen eye out for the And then there is the neg- groups and this agitation is [onegripe, the dissenter amidst Marchl993