John Flournoy Montgomery
Encyclopedia
John Flournoy Montgomery (1878-1954) was an American businessman and diplomat. His sole diplomatic posting was as U.S. Minister to Hungary
, between 1933 and 1941. This ambassadorial assignment placed Montgomery at the center of the seething European intrigue that characterized interwar Hungary; in particular he was witness to the rise of Adolf Hitler
’s influence in Budapest
, and the complex struggle over the alliance between Hungary and Nazi Germany
. His memoirs, titled Hungary: The Unwilling Satellite, are considered a valuable document of that era.
, born September 20, 1878 in the town of Sedalia and educated there. At the age of 26, he married Hedwig Wildi, and the couple had two daughters. Montgomery built a successful career in the dairy industry, specifically in the processing of condensed milk
. From 1925 to 1933, he was the president of the International Milk Company in Vermont. He was a loyal and generous supporter of the Democratic Party
, and after Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt
claimed the White House
in 1932, Montgomery was rewarded with the promise of a diplomatic job.
, but Budapest was what he was offered). Montgomery was clearly expected to watch over the political intrigues not only in Budapest but, from his central location on the Danube
, to monitor the goings-on in Hungary’s neighbors (Austria
, Czechoslovakia
, Romania
, Yugoslavia
) and other countries in the region as well, including Bulgaria
, Poland
, Germany
and Italy
. Roosevelt invited Montgomery to report to him personally, an opportunity the ambassador took occasionally.
Although he had no career experience as an international diplomat, Montgomery proved to be an enthusiastic and dedicated ambassador. He cultivated hundreds of friendships among the Hungarian and European political class, with whom he socialized regularly; he faithfully dictated records of almost every conversation he held with important political players, and kept a detailed journal. He avidly collected and recorded information about his many contacts, including their earlier jobs, their families and hobbies, and even gossip he heard about them from his other friends.
At the same time, Montgomery was hindered by his background: he spoke only English, which limited most of his meaningful contacts to those Hungarians and other Europeans who had studied English themselves and spoke it fluently. By definition, this meant that most of his close relationships in Budapest were with educated aristocrats and members of the ruling political elite. His inability to read local newspapers or understand casual conversations in the street meant that Montgomery was cut off from much of the middle- and working-class political activity in the Hungarian capital.
Montgomery was also plainly charmed by Budapest’s Gilded Age
atmosphere, and enchanted by the capital’s old-world pageantry – the elaborate costumes and glittering, semi-feudal rituals to which Hungary clung. In particular, he was won over by the considerable charisma and personal charm of Hungary’s head of state, the regent Miklós Horthy
.
and the Nazi regime in Germany - and Hitler's growing influence in Hungarian political circles. Like many American diplomats, Montgomery was suspicious of Hitler from early in the dictator's reign; the ambassador's scathing reports on Hitler delighted FDR, who shared his contempt for the German dictator.
The Hungarian leadership was aware of American hostility toward Hitler’s Nazi regime; as Hungary crept deeper into Hitler’s sphere of influence throughout the 1930s, Horthy and his colleagues took pains to assure Montgomery that they, too, disliked and feared Hitler – a message which Montgomery dutifully passed back to Washington, as they doubtless hoped he would.
What Hungary’s various leaders actually thought of Hitler and alliance with Germany is the subject of a complex debate that lasts to the present day. Hungary had its own home-grown fascist movements
and right-wing politicians
, but much of the political elite in Budapest was genuinely wary of Hitler. The German Fuehrer was generally seen as a powerful but dangerous ally: he clearly had his own designs on Hungary's natural resources, and after the 1938 Anschluss
, Hitler had a well-equipped army standing directly on Hungary's borders. At the same time, Horthy was hoping to make use of Hitler: the regent, like most of the political class, was virulently anti-Communist, and he was gambling that Hitler would keep Hungary safe from the dangers posed by Joseph Stalin
's "Asiatic barbarians." Horthy was also dedicated (as was virtually every Hungarian) to re-acquiring territories which Hungary had been forced to cede
to neighboring nations at the end of the First World War - and some of which were re-annexed by Hungary with Hitler's help between 1938 and 1940.
Nevertheless, Montgomery’s Hungarian friends convinced him that Hungary’s capitulations to the Nazis were essentially pragmatic, the only possible path for a weak nation facing a well-armed and ruthless neighbor. As Montgomery wrote in Hungary: The Unwilling Satellite:
In this, Montgomery echoed the stance of the regent Horthy, who wrote in his own memoirs:
This similarity of opinion is not unusual: a comparison of Horthy’s memoirs and Montgomery’s yields a regular alignment of their views, especially regarding Hungary’s political choices before and during the Second World War.
The friendship between the two men was cemented during a famous episode on March 15, 1939. Both men were attending a gala performance at the Budapest Opera House, when supporters of the fascist Hungarian Ferenc Szálasi
(recently jailed on Horthy’s order) disrupted the opening ceremonies by chanting, from a box above the regent’s, “Justice for Szálasi!” Horthy, enraged, dashed out of his royal box, and Montgomery followed to see what was happening. When he caught up with Horthy, he reported that:
Horthy apparently believed that Montgomery was coming to offer help, because he thanked Montgomery later with a gift of a photograph of the opera event, a present which Montgomery treasured. The two men became close (according to Tibor Frank, a Hungarian scholar who closely studied Montgomery’s private papers, Montgomery even shared Horthy’s “drawing-room anti-Semitism
,” and viewed the pre-war anxieties of Budapest’s large Jewish upper-middle class with a mixture of sympathy and condescension). Montgomery did his best to foster a sense of personal connection between the regent and President Roosevelt – a connection which Horthy apparently felt, but which Roosevelt did not. On the whole, Montgomery resented the way in which Roosevelt held him at arm’s length, and complained that FDR was insufficiently curious about real reports from the field.
as a full war partner during the invasion of the Soviet Union. When the United States entered the Second World War that December, Horthy's alliance with Hitler placed the minister’s beloved Hungary in America’s enemies column; but Montgomery remained committed to Hungary’s independence and well-being. He viewed with anguish the destruction of virtually half the capital during the Battle of Budapest
, and he bitterly mourned the ceding of Hungary to Soviet control at the war’s end.
Montgomery also remained committed to the well-being of Miklós Horthy, who was captured by American troops at the war's end: as the Allies prepared for the Nuremberg Trials
, Montgomery used his influence in Washington to help extricate Horthy from indictment and trial. Horthy was interviewed extensively, and later was called to testify at the trial of a Nazi administrator in Budapest, but was never charged for any of his actions during or before the war.
After the trials, Montgomery continued to support the Horthys in their exile (they could not and would not return to Budapest, which was now controlled by a Soviet-led Communist government). After the Horthy family relocated to Estoril, Portugal, Montgomery raised funds for their upkeep from a small committee of wealthy Hungarians in America. After Montgomery died in 1954, his daughter Jean continued supporting the ex-regent and his wife until their deaths.
In 1947 Montgomery published a heartfelt memoir of his Budapest days called Hungary: The Unwilling Satellite. The book was, and remains, a widely-read and widely-quoted source for examinations of Hungarian pre-war politics, in some measure because it is unique as a thorough Western lens on interwar Hungary; the Soviet-dominated Hungarian leadership after 1947 vilified Horthy and promoted an official view that Horthy was a fascist and a Nazi collaborator.
The stories Montgomery told in The Unwilling Satellite were further illuminated by the discovery, among Montgomery’s personal papers, of his own private notes on many of his discussions with Hungary’s leaders. These notes were found by scholar Tibor Frank after he met Montgomery’s daughter Jean, and was given unconstrained access by her to the Montgomery papers. Frank published many of these notes in his book Discussing Hitler: Advisors of U.S. Diplomacy in Central Europe, 1934-1941.
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, between 1933 and 1941. This ambassadorial assignment placed Montgomery at the center of the seething European intrigue that characterized interwar Hungary; in particular he was witness to the rise of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
’s influence in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, and the complex struggle over the alliance between Hungary and Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. His memoirs, titled Hungary: The Unwilling Satellite, are considered a valuable document of that era.
Background
Montgomery was a native of MissouriMissouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, born September 20, 1878 in the town of Sedalia and educated there. At the age of 26, he married Hedwig Wildi, and the couple had two daughters. Montgomery built a successful career in the dairy industry, specifically in the processing of condensed milk
Condensed milk
Condensed milk, also known as sweetened condensed milk, is cow's milk from which water has been removed and to which sugar has been added, yielding a very thick, sweet product which when canned can last for years without refrigeration if unopened. The two terms, condensed milk and sweetened...
. From 1925 to 1933, he was the president of the International Milk Company in Vermont. He was a loyal and generous supporter of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, and after Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
claimed the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in 1932, Montgomery was rewarded with the promise of a diplomatic job.
Budapest posting
In June 1933, Montgomery was sworn in as U.S. Minister to Hungary (he had hoped to be sent to ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, but Budapest was what he was offered). Montgomery was clearly expected to watch over the political intrigues not only in Budapest but, from his central location on the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
, to monitor the goings-on in Hungary’s neighbors (Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
) and other countries in the region as well, including Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Roosevelt invited Montgomery to report to him personally, an opportunity the ambassador took occasionally.
Although he had no career experience as an international diplomat, Montgomery proved to be an enthusiastic and dedicated ambassador. He cultivated hundreds of friendships among the Hungarian and European political class, with whom he socialized regularly; he faithfully dictated records of almost every conversation he held with important political players, and kept a detailed journal. He avidly collected and recorded information about his many contacts, including their earlier jobs, their families and hobbies, and even gossip he heard about them from his other friends.
At the same time, Montgomery was hindered by his background: he spoke only English, which limited most of his meaningful contacts to those Hungarians and other Europeans who had studied English themselves and spoke it fluently. By definition, this meant that most of his close relationships in Budapest were with educated aristocrats and members of the ruling political elite. His inability to read local newspapers or understand casual conversations in the street meant that Montgomery was cut off from much of the middle- and working-class political activity in the Hungarian capital.
Montgomery was also plainly charmed by Budapest’s Gilded Age
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age refers to the era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States during the post–Civil War and post-Reconstruction eras of the late 19th century. The term "Gilded Age" was coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their book The Gilded...
atmosphere, and enchanted by the capital’s old-world pageantry – the elaborate costumes and glittering, semi-feudal rituals to which Hungary clung. In particular, he was won over by the considerable charisma and personal charm of Hungary’s head of state, the regent Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
.
Montgomery and the rise of Hitler
Unquestionably the most critical trend which Montgomery was required to monitor from Budapest was the rise of Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and the Nazi regime in Germany - and Hitler's growing influence in Hungarian political circles. Like many American diplomats, Montgomery was suspicious of Hitler from early in the dictator's reign; the ambassador's scathing reports on Hitler delighted FDR, who shared his contempt for the German dictator.
The Hungarian leadership was aware of American hostility toward Hitler’s Nazi regime; as Hungary crept deeper into Hitler’s sphere of influence throughout the 1930s, Horthy and his colleagues took pains to assure Montgomery that they, too, disliked and feared Hitler – a message which Montgomery dutifully passed back to Washington, as they doubtless hoped he would.
What Hungary’s various leaders actually thought of Hitler and alliance with Germany is the subject of a complex debate that lasts to the present day. Hungary had its own home-grown fascist movements
Arrow Cross Party
The Arrow Cross Party was a national socialist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which led in Hungary a government known as the Government of National Unity from October 15, 1944 to 28 March 1945...
and right-wing politicians
Gyula Gömbös
Gyula Gömbös de Jákfa was the conservative prime minister of Hungary from 1932 to 1936.-Background:Gömbös was born in the Tolna County village of Murga, Hungary, which had a mixed Hungarian and ethnic German population. His father was the village schoolmaster. The family belonged to the ...
, but much of the political elite in Budapest was genuinely wary of Hitler. The German Fuehrer was generally seen as a powerful but dangerous ally: he clearly had his own designs on Hungary's natural resources, and after the 1938 Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
, Hitler had a well-equipped army standing directly on Hungary's borders. At the same time, Horthy was hoping to make use of Hitler: the regent, like most of the political class, was virulently anti-Communist, and he was gambling that Hitler would keep Hungary safe from the dangers posed by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's "Asiatic barbarians." Horthy was also dedicated (as was virtually every Hungarian) to re-acquiring territories which Hungary had been forced to cede
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
to neighboring nations at the end of the First World War - and some of which were re-annexed by Hungary with Hitler's help between 1938 and 1940.
Nevertheless, Montgomery’s Hungarian friends convinced him that Hungary’s capitulations to the Nazis were essentially pragmatic, the only possible path for a weak nation facing a well-armed and ruthless neighbor. As Montgomery wrote in Hungary: The Unwilling Satellite:
In this, Montgomery echoed the stance of the regent Horthy, who wrote in his own memoirs:
This similarity of opinion is not unusual: a comparison of Horthy’s memoirs and Montgomery’s yields a regular alignment of their views, especially regarding Hungary’s political choices before and during the Second World War.
The friendship between the two men was cemented during a famous episode on March 15, 1939. Both men were attending a gala performance at the Budapest Opera House, when supporters of the fascist Hungarian Ferenc Szálasi
Ferenc Szálasi
Ferenc Szálasi was the leader of the National Socialist Arrow Cross Party – Hungarist Movement, the "Leader of the Nation" , being both Head of State and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary's "Government of National Unity" for the final three months of Hungary's participation in World War II...
(recently jailed on Horthy’s order) disrupted the opening ceremonies by chanting, from a box above the regent’s, “Justice for Szálasi!” Horthy, enraged, dashed out of his royal box, and Montgomery followed to see what was happening. When he caught up with Horthy, he reported that:
Horthy apparently believed that Montgomery was coming to offer help, because he thanked Montgomery later with a gift of a photograph of the opera event, a present which Montgomery treasured. The two men became close (according to Tibor Frank, a Hungarian scholar who closely studied Montgomery’s private papers, Montgomery even shared Horthy’s “drawing-room anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
,” and viewed the pre-war anxieties of Budapest’s large Jewish upper-middle class with a mixture of sympathy and condescension). Montgomery did his best to foster a sense of personal connection between the regent and President Roosevelt – a connection which Horthy apparently felt, but which Roosevelt did not. On the whole, Montgomery resented the way in which Roosevelt held him at arm’s length, and complained that FDR was insufficiently curious about real reports from the field.
After Budapest
Montgomery was recalled from his posting Budapest in March 1941, three months before Hungary finally joined the AxisAxis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
as a full war partner during the invasion of the Soviet Union. When the United States entered the Second World War that December, Horthy's alliance with Hitler placed the minister’s beloved Hungary in America’s enemies column; but Montgomery remained committed to Hungary’s independence and well-being. He viewed with anguish the destruction of virtually half the capital during the Battle of Budapest
Battle of Budapest
The Siege of Budapest centered on the Hungarian capital city of Budapest. It was fought towards the end of World War II in Europe, during the Soviet Budapest Offensive. The siege started when Budapest, defended by Hungarian and German troops, was first encircled on 29 December 1944 by the Red Army...
, and he bitterly mourned the ceding of Hungary to Soviet control at the war’s end.
Montgomery also remained committed to the well-being of Miklós Horthy, who was captured by American troops at the war's end: as the Allies prepared for the Nuremberg Trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
, Montgomery used his influence in Washington to help extricate Horthy from indictment and trial. Horthy was interviewed extensively, and later was called to testify at the trial of a Nazi administrator in Budapest, but was never charged for any of his actions during or before the war.
After the trials, Montgomery continued to support the Horthys in their exile (they could not and would not return to Budapest, which was now controlled by a Soviet-led Communist government). After the Horthy family relocated to Estoril, Portugal, Montgomery raised funds for their upkeep from a small committee of wealthy Hungarians in America. After Montgomery died in 1954, his daughter Jean continued supporting the ex-regent and his wife until their deaths.
In 1947 Montgomery published a heartfelt memoir of his Budapest days called Hungary: The Unwilling Satellite. The book was, and remains, a widely-read and widely-quoted source for examinations of Hungarian pre-war politics, in some measure because it is unique as a thorough Western lens on interwar Hungary; the Soviet-dominated Hungarian leadership after 1947 vilified Horthy and promoted an official view that Horthy was a fascist and a Nazi collaborator.
The stories Montgomery told in The Unwilling Satellite were further illuminated by the discovery, among Montgomery’s personal papers, of his own private notes on many of his discussions with Hungary’s leaders. These notes were found by scholar Tibor Frank after he met Montgomery’s daughter Jean, and was given unconstrained access by her to the Montgomery papers. Frank published many of these notes in his book Discussing Hitler: Advisors of U.S. Diplomacy in Central Europe, 1934-1941.