Former Envoy Donald Kursch Addresses Symposium on 20th Anniversary of Fall of the Wall

March 5, 2009

Mr. Kursch—2nd from left; current UK Ambassador Gregory Dorey to Mr. Kursch’s left; Dr. Friedrich Bauer—at the time Austria’s Ambassador to the Soviet Union to Mr. Kursch’s right; and the moderator, Andreas Oplatka, journalist

Donald Kursch, former Deputy Chief of Mission at Embassy Budapest, spoke at a symposium in Budapest addressing the history and lessons learned from twenty years ago at the time of political transition in Eastern Europe. Hungary was one of the first countries to acknowledge and do something about ending Communism.

This symposium, organized on March 5, 2009 by the International Center for Democratic Transition in cooperation with seven embassies including the U.S. Embassy, celebrated Hungary’s leaving the Soviet orbit. Former Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors and other high ranking officials of that time were invited to speak at the one-day forum. Kursch noted the many changes that have occurred in Hungary since his first tour in the 1970s when the hosts were conspicuously less hospitable, but the people were open and friendly then as now. The event was extensively covered in the media.