The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War—A Tragedy in Three Acts

by Scott Anderson

This plan was put into effect, but with a further refinement. Even though a Soviet veto of the U.N. Security Council resolution was a sure thing, if the measure came up for a vote too soon, the burden would be back on the Eisenhower administration to take some action on its own. The work-around was for Lodge to slow-walk the Hungarian issue at the U.N., presenting it as a matter “for discussion” rather than as a full-blown crisis worthy of quick action. In the meantime, the only official communication the administration sent to the Kremlin during the Hungarian crisis was a note of assurance that the United States had no interest in making a breakaway Hungary part of a Western alliance, as if this assurance might be enough to cause Moscow to let Hungary go.