The Soviet Union had installed Imre Nagy in power on October 24 with the intention of using this moderate and reform-minded leader to quell the Hungarian uprising. Instead Nagy had been captured by the euphoria of the anti-Soviet rebellion and declared Hungary’s intention to leave the communist bloc, setting off a panicked reaction in the Kremlin. Khrushchev and his colleagues worried that if Hungary could slip away from communist control just when Egypt, a potential client state, was being invaded by the Europeans, the West would have delivered a dual blow to Soviet prestige. In a secret
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