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Hungary Threat from the Soviet Union
From the mid-1940s through the mid-1980s, the threat of
a
Soviet invasion prevented the other Warsaw Pact countries
from
deviating from Moscow's prescribed domestic and foreign
policies.
The Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 demonstrated that
Moscow
would act if it believed that changes in that country
threatened
the security of the Warsaw Pact or the leading role of the
communist party in Hungary. After economic reforms began
in the
1960s, Hungary's government and party leaders were careful
to
take Soviet sensitivities into account. However, in the
late
1980s, Moscow showed that it was sympathetic rather than
hostile
to reforms within Hungary, thus lessening the chances of a
Soviet
invasion.
Data as of September 1989
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