The end of communism in Hungary

On July 11, 1989, a severe thunderstorm lashed over Budapest as the crowds gathered before Parliament on Kossuth Square. However, not even torrential rain could disperse them as they eagerly awaited the arrival of US President George H. W. Bush – the first sitting American president, ever, to visit Hungary. This wasn’t the only reason for their enthusiasm, however. Bush had served as Vice President in Ronald Reagan's administration, which had undermined the Soviet Union's global power. Now ‘President’ Bush was instilling a sense of hope for freedom within Hungarians. At the Yalta Conference in 1945, the US agreed to allow Soviet influence to extend throughout East-Central Europe. President Bush’s visit signaled that the Yalta World Order could be waning, and that Hungary’s place on the map of the free world beckoned again.