Dear Friends!

The next article of our member David Kiss would like to introduce the way the Hungarian People’s Army viewed the hostile US Special Forces, what picture the official military literature have built up in the second half of the 1980’s on these special soldiers serving on the other side. We would like to wish you a pleasant reading!

Portrait of a Green Beret of the 5th Special Forces Group

Introduction

The “American Green Beret” has been one of the most frequently mentioned dangers awaiting for the soldiers of the Hungarian People’s Army (HPA). This is not a surprise, as between 1945 and 1989, during the Cold War the United States of America has been one of the leading powers of the world, the Soviet Union being the other, both gathering around the forces of the NATO, and the Warsaw Pact, to march into war protecting democratic rights, or communist ideas.

In this bipolar world, out of historical and geopolitical reasons, Hungary has sided with the “Eastern Block”, or the Warsaw Pact, strengthening the “peace camp”, as its “most joyful barrack”, and prepared for the overwhelming attack of the NATO troops, spearheaded by the US special forces, and airborne units. In my essay above I try to unfold the view on these special soldiers, provided by contemporary works of Hungarian military experts in the second half of the 1980’s.

First of the books I have used for my essay is made for the civilian readers, written by Miklós Szabó in 1985, under the title “Zöldsapkások”, or “Green Berets”. As a “novel, based on documents” it tries to present the reality of the American Special Forces. The next work is an important, and one written in professional depth, edited by Soviet military theoretic, Professor M. M. Kirjan, under the title „A váratlanság szerepe az USA fegyveres erői hadműveleteiben” or „The role of unexpectedness in the offensive operations of the USA” published in 1986 by the Zrínyi Military Publishing. Also published by them in 1987, there is a work by Ferenc Kovács, titled “Az amerikai tiszt” or “The American Officer”, presenting a detailed view on the operations, and units of the US Special Forces. Last of all the work of the HPA Material and Theoretical Center for  Political Education published in 1988 (and stamped “For internal use only!”) under the title “NATO Corps in South and Middle-Europe”, introducint the airborne, and air mobile units opposing the HPA.

"The soldiers do not know impossible"

“Know your enemy!”

It was an important part of training in the HPA, especially for the Long Range Recon units, to attend the so-called “knowledge on the enemy armies” lectures. During these training sessions the Hungarian soldiers got to know the political goals, social composition, and most importantly the technical background of the opposing armies. As one of the veteran Long Range Recon soldiers remembers:

“As soon as bad weather struck us, we went to the classrooms, for enemy army knowledge, ground orientation course, survival skills, etc. It was funny that we have lectured on Austrian, Italian, and German military vehicles, reading their tracks, but in reality we have dealt with Soviet BMPs, and T-72s.”

In addition to the specialized training it was the task of the political officers of every single unit to familiarize their soldiers with the enemy, and point out the differences between the two political systems – of course highlighting the communist achievements. A flow of articles, books, and pamphlets have helped them doing so, written in a propagandistic manner, strengthening the official view on the American soldiers, and preparing the Hungarian soldiers mentally to fight them if time comes. Of course these publications have used propagandistic slogans, supporting their statements by a subjectively assorted group of facts, yet containing real and useful factual statements too. In the academic work under the title „The role of unexpectedness in the offensive operations of the USA” Professor M. M. Kirjan writes:

“The United States in 1949 has raised the strength of its armed forces to 1 615 000 – Making it five times larger, than the pre-war one in 1939. – This process has not stopped until the early 1970s, and resulted in the largest peacetime army in the history of the US that has not waged war against any countries, nor has been threatened by an external attack.”

„The role of unexpectedness in the offensive operations of the USA”

The quote, in the light of the communist doctrine of expansion, is clearly based on misstatements, though using US sources(!) to support its statements, using the work under the title: „Historical Statistics of the United States , Colonial Times to 1970.” published in Washington, in 1975. This example sheds light on the advantages of the domestic propaganda, using factually correct statements, and being an useful tool in political education, and military training alike.

Nuclear blitzkrieg, airborne troops, and special forces

After introducing the mindset in Hungary, let us see the strategy of the USA in a nutshell. The armed forces of the United States have been trained for and deployed in three major fields of operations during the Cold War era:

- Nuclear War: Building up a nuclear arsenal in the USA (which has been followed by the establishment of a similarly dangerous Soviet arsenal) the US Government has tried to prepare for a “preventive strike”, in case the Cold War would reach its boiling point. In this scenario the nuclear weapons stationed around various NATO bases would play a vital role in the operations, as the importance of reconnaissance and intelligence would have an increased impact on the outcome. As one of the ardent advocates of the “preventive strike” doctrine, B. Brodie has summed up its main essence:

“This scenario offers full victory to those who would be the first to attack.”

- Conventional Warfare: The war waged by using conventional (meaning no “nuclear” or “mass destruction”) weapons have remained the main mission of the armed forces of the US. Insomuch, that during the Cold War, the US has fought two of them (Korea, and Vietnam being these two), calling these wars “police actions”, and “interventions”, as none has been started by a formal declaration of war. The characteristic of both of these wars has been the presence of special forces, and the ever-growing deployment of airborne, and air assault forces. As it has been stressed in the FM-71 – 30 Field Manual on “Employment of Airborne Forces” issued in 1947:

“Airborne forces have to be deployed with the element of surprise taken into account. Surprise could be established by the secrecy of operational plans, by deceiving the enemy, by fast air transportation, and swift attack… Surprise is the main element of airborne operations, which has to be used to its maximum.”

- Local War: The changing post-1945 world has seen several newly independent states being the stage for a race to win these new states both by the Soviet Union, and by the USA to their own cause. Furthermore the communist ideology, because of its “revolutionary” nature has fueled several local armed insurgencies, as the anti-communist forces were also able to orchestrate several uprisings in countries under communist rule. Characteristic of these local wars are low intensity, asymmetric warfare (guerrilla and partisan wars), and the increased presence of improperly led, and armed local forces. In this filed the current US Special Forces are considered to be “experts”, mainly helping local groups of insurgents as advisors.

By these above it is clear why is there a real and understandable interest coming from the Hungarian military experts towards the airborne, air assault, and special forces of the US Army. Let us see how this interest has been worked out!

"Merciless"

US airborne and air assault forces from a Hungarian point of view

As it could be seen above, airborne, and air assault units are considered to be essential, highly versatile units, able to conduct fast deployment, and fight with distinction, often used in the depth of the enemy lines, to capture strategic strongholds, or areas. Most of the operations analyzed in „The role of unexpectedness in the offensive operations of the USA” had an air assault phase, proving the high standards of training, motivation of these units, making them a dangerous enemy, that could be encountered virtually anywhere, riding helicopters, or using parachutes as their method of deployment. It is not a surprise that Hungarian sources are going into depth introducing these units.

It could be an interesting parallel, but American propaganda has used enemy airborne forces too. In the 1984 movie masterpiece, “Red Dawn” Soviet paratroopers are the first to hit American soil, and start the invasion. It seems possible that Western people were as much in fear because of the Soviet paratroopers, as the Eastern Block has feared the American airborne units.

The 1988-dated informational publication, under the title “NATO Corps in South and Middle-Europe”, is mentioning the 101^st Air Assault Division, and the 82^nd Airborne Division as reinforcing elements for the US Army in Europe. Both of these units are introduced by an in-depth historical background, yet one can find interesting parts in these introductions. In the chapter dealing with the 82^nd Airborne Division the publication goes as:

“In December 1944, during the German Ardennes Offensive amongst four other American divisions the 82^nd has been also encircled, only saved from complete annihilation by a large offensive, launched by the Soviet troops.”

“NATO Corps in South and Middle-Europe”

In reality the division has been refitted and rested after the bloody fighting in September and October of 1944 in the Netherlands, when the German offensive struck the US forces. The division has been sent to the northern sector of the US lines, has never been surrounded, as it only had to retreat once. Further wartime experiences are described like this:

„Parts of the division has taken part in the pillaging wars of the American imperialism in Vietnam and Korea, in the intervention against the Lebanese people, oppressing the democratic forces of the Dominican Republic, and in the aggression against Grenada”

Of course all of the actions of the 82^nd Airborne Division mentioned above have been conducted against “popular”, and “progressive” forces backed by Communists, supporting the US efforts mentioned above. One can get a similarly alarming picture reading the column about weapons, training, and equipment of the 101^st Air Assault Division:

“The 101^st Air Assault Division has participated amongst the first ones in exercises, fielding live nuclear weapons, and other weapons of mass destruction. First of all this Division has been armed with the most advanced types of weaponry, and military technology for experimental use, and is still a testing ground for new tactics, and organizational innovations.”

Both of the unit descriptions have got a column, titled “Training, moral, and political state of the personnel”. These parts are detailing the special abilities, level of motivation, training, and political loyalty of the units. One can find the boldest statements about the US airborne forces, stating that all paratroopers are “brainwashed” fanatical mercenaries, “trained” to fight communist forces. In case of the 101^st Air Assault Division it states:

“The main goal of their ideological conditioning is to indoctrinate the soldiers in the pride of being part of the 101^st Air Assault Division (…) There is great emphasis on the psychological training of the soldiers and NCOs for the anti-communist struggle.”

"American soldiers in Grenada: Communism Stops Here! The 82nd Airborne Division"

Of course the unit is not an undefeateble „super-team”, and it is not one without flaws, as the description goes, there are lots of problems with drug use, heavy drinking, discrimination, and racism.

“In the past three years the Division has reduced the number on the field of disciplinary offenses by 33 percents and by 28 percents the consumption of narcotics and alcohol on post. Command has been able to reduce class-based hostilities, and racial tensions.”

Though the pamphlet lacks professional sources for the statistical details used, yet it is interesting to see data on drug abuse in the post-Vietnam US Army. Regulations in effect from 1982 have prohibited strictly the drug abuse of soldiers on post, or off duty, thus reduce of drug use would have to show a larger percentage in 1985. In comparison in the year of 2008 from the total number of service members between 18 and 15 serving in the armed forces of the USA only 3.9% have used illegal drugs during his time in the armed forces, and 28% of them have admitted that they have consumed larger amounts of alcohol on a regular weekly base. The topic itself, mostly because of its illegality, and social stigmatization is a difficult field of research, so one has to take reservations towards the Hungarian source in this regard. As the source continues, altogether it is safe to state that in the 101^st Air Assault Division:

“(…) intense combat training, backed up by brain-washing the soldiers  ensures the high level of combat readiness of the 101^st Air Assault Division, making it one of the most reliable unit of the US ground forces, in the eyes of the high command.”

The column about the Training, moral, and political state of the personnel” of the 82^nd Airborne Division is also an interesting reading. It states, that the Division is a versatile fighting unit, ready to deploy anywhere anytime. Then it goes as:

“Starting with 1962 the soldiers of the unit have been actively prepared to fight national liberation movements, partisans, and indoctrinated in the methods of fight against the proletariat of the United States. They are trained by the principle of Kill or be killed. During combat training they face special tasks designed to build up the aggressive instincts of the soldiers, and to convince them about that there is no moral, or any other barriers that can hold them back.”

"Soldiers are trained for special conditions"

These statements are hard to support, or could even come from the imagination of the writers, as there are no such events linking 1962, the 82^nd Airborne Division, and the oppression of the working class of the US together.  There has been only one action undertaken in this period that could be interpreted in such way, the Detroit racial unrest between the 23^rd and 27^th of July, 1967. when soldiers of the 82^nd Airborne Division has been ordered to support local law enforcement and the National Guard in handling the series of riots, robberies, arsons, and shootouts in the city. The events have claimed 43 fatalities.

Thus it is clear that in regards of the American paratroopers, the Hungarian military literature highlights a force which is “well prepared, and ready to wage war in any special circumstances on any continent.” At the same time personnel of these units are trained “to be able to act independently, and proactively. They have to be able to endure radical weather, the dangers of unknown terrain, and to fight for a prolonged period of time under pressure.”

Overall it is clear that members of the US airborne and airmobile units have been depicted by Hungarian military literature as highly trained, anti-communistic, “brain-washed”, and morally uninhibited soldiers, with experiences from “capitalist pillaging wars”, ready to terrorize the civilian population of the Hungarian Peoples Republic. There is only one type of American unit that is worse than them – the Special Forces.

Officer of the Special Forces

US Special Forces from a Hungarian point of view

The Hungarian military literature of the era – out of understandable reasons – could have presented only a few concrete facts about the mission, or structure of the US Special Forces, as it has got only a handful of these facts at the time. Nonetheless there are two books on the topic, one of them completely devoted to them. The book of Miklós Szabó, under the title “Zöldsapkások” or “Green Berets” has been published in 1985 by the gigantic Kossuth Publishing, with the aim to show the larger audience the inhuman ways of the Special Forces, their bloody missions, and the Hungarians taking part in them, fleeing the country after the fall of the 1956 anti-communist uprising.

"Green Berets"

The novel itself tells the story of the young “Ferenc Magyar”, who has fled to the US after 1956, then volunteered to serve in the Army to financially help his family. After basic training he became member of the Military Police, then part of the Special Forces, while continuously compares his “peaceful” Hungarian memories with the “inhuman” American way of life. The foreword of the book introduces the young Hungarian-American “Green Beret” like this:

„(…) as a soldier of the notorious ‘green beret’ detachment he gets special training, to be a worthy member of the unit, intervening in the local politics all around the world by terrorist attacks, coups, and diversion. The payment for this demanding and adventurous way of life: high salary and privileged position.”

The book depicts in a literary way this closed world by three real-life Hungarian-American soldier “returning home from the US Special Forces, bearing the Serial Numbers RA 10817071, RA 10813377, RA 10813619”. It is difficult to search for these Service Numbers, and the topic asks for further research to determine if there were three Hungarians serving under these actual Service Numbers, leaving their units, returning to Hungary, and reporting on their experiences, after realizing that their service, training, and actions are endangering their home country as the book states. Current sources make this unbelievable.

"Indian methods in the modern warfare"

It is a fact, that during the 20^th Century, especially after 1956 many Hungarians have fled the country, heading to the United States, as that is a fact, that lots of them have volunteered to fight in the US Army, like László Rábel, Tibor Rubin, or Leslie H. Sabo, all of them earning the highest US military award, the Medal of Honor.
Furthermore that is a fact too, that the US Special Forces were more than happy to train soldiers from potential areas of operations, as they knew the language, customs, the country itself, thus could operate more efficiently.

In spite of all these the style of “Green Berets”, mixing fictional elements with facts has been an useful tool of propaganda, trying to underline the ruthless ways both of the US special forces, and the American society. As the foreword states:

“Ferenc Magyar from being a bona fide, naive young men, first became a senseless, well-trained mercenary, spy (or killer if needed!), then when he would have to deploy against his own homeland, he turns his fate in an other direction, sickened by his former self.”

The book, published under the title “The American officer” written by Ferenc Kovács in 1987 paints a more detailed picture on the US Special Forces. The book has been published by the Zrínyi Military Publishing, as part of a series, introducing the officer cadre of the NATO armies to the Hungarian soldiers, dealing with training, social background, combat missions, and many more interesting details, supported by sources, charts, tables. The work focusing on officer training separately introduces the Special Forces.

“It is necessary to illustrate the warfare and mindset of the special forces, established to take part in interventions on foreign soil. (…) Cadre of the Special Forces are being selected from regular units, with a high standard regarding the physical endurance, execution of commands and training phases without hesitation or deliberation, fulfilling orders without any moral barriers, undertaking any missions for higher salary, or reward, mostly from people with dubious background, and immigrants or their descendants.”

"The American Officer"

Those who, after reading these expanded sentences, have got the picture of a “Dirty Dozen”-like unit filled with anti-social criminals, and prisoners sentenced to death, are not far from truth, as the writer wanted to depict the unit as one of the darkest and most evil executioners, and terrorist groups in history. About the capabilities of the 5 000-strong unit one can read the following:

“Due to their leftist views they are suitable to train and lead local counter-revolutionary forces, to perform the cruelest diversionary raids, and political assassinations. Their activities are marked by unscrupulousness, sadism, ordering or inflicting torture by modern medicine and techniques etc. tormenting women and children if necessary (and training for similar assassinations), arming, training and leading counter-revolutionary forces in their dirty work.”

It is important to highlight that it is a fact that the US Special Forces are multiplying their power by training and leading local forces, and are working as “advisors” on the field since the 1960s. This task has been with them since the WWII.-era “Jedburgh-teams”, supporting resistance movements in Western Europe, and is still part of their capabilities.

It has been also mentioned that amongst the ranks of the US Special Forces there were several anti-communist volunteers. One of them was a former Finnish commander of a special unit, who has afterwards served in the Waffen-SS before joining the US Special Forces, called Lauri Törni (Larry Thorne), who was killed in action in 1965 in Vietnam.

These lines are painting a picture by using exaggerations, and emotionally overheated language, but contain bits of the truth, partial facts, and historically correct statements, making these propagandistic pamphlets work in general. Furthermore one can find out that there is a difference between the Special Forces units:

“Only those experts, who have a deeper interest in the structure of the Special Forces know, that even in this bunch, ready for any cruelty and infamy there is present a caste-system of chauvinism between branches, and units. The main task of the class, better known as ‘green berets’ is the military training, and preparation of the terrorist organizations and armed military and law enforcement wings of satellite countries of America to fight the liberation forces. Despite they occasionally take part in bloody actions, compared to the rangers, or the ‘black berets’ they are considered to be ‘clean’ soldiers. Their most spectacular area of operations nowadays is Central-America."

Ferenc Kovács here highlights an other specialized unit of the US Army, the Ranger Battalion, which has been factually raised as a ”direct action” unit for directly attacking various targets, as an elite light infantry unit, that is able to support special forces in action. This unit could be deployed by sea, land, or air assaults and its small teams are “experts” of light infantry tactics.

This comparison between the “green berets” and the “black berets” is not fully valid, as the two units are working on different fields. While “green berets” are mainly tasked by training and mentoring, plus special reconnaissance, asymmetric warfare, and clandestine warfare, the Rangers are mainly acting as a supporting element for special forces as an airmobile light infantry unit. To put it more simple the “green berets” are mostly conducting secretive missions in special environment, while Rangers are providing background support as a highly mobile, and armed reserve units.

"Their nature of service is clearly visible through their propaganda shirts, available via magazines"

It is indeed an ironical fact that by the change of the political situation after 1989, the Hungarian Defense Force has been amongst the first ones to send officers to the Ranger course to the USA, to learn from these “inhumane” and “ruthless” soldiers. Times may change.

Summary

To sum up it is clear, that the assessed pieces of the Hungarian military and popular literature from the second half of the 1980s tried to demonize the soldiers of the US Special Forces, airborne, and airmobile units led by propagandistic goals, using contemporary sources, unverifiable statements, sometimes even artistic exaggerations. The level of discrediting is directly proportional with the effectiveness of the units, thus making it understandable, why the Special Forces have been targeted by the most serious statements.

At the same time, these works could contain valuable data built on solid facts that could be only filtered out by using strong source criticism and skepticism. Though it is possible to separate facts from fiction, using these sources mentioned above, mostly because of their nature, would require a massive amount of additional research. Therefore it could be stated, that in regards of the history of the US Special Forces, airmobile and airborne units the Hungarian sources dated before 1989 could be used with less efficiency.

These sources on the other hand could be of use as documents of an era, marking a military mindset, and a worldview, as these are clearly demonstrating the views and thoughts of a member of the Warsaw Pact, about the most highly trained, best equipped, most motivated soldiers of the main opponent, the United States of America, preparing its soldiers for a war, that never had to be fought.

- David Kiss -

Sources:

 - National Institute on Drug Abuse; National Institutes of Health; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/substance-abuse-in-military) (2018-02-06 15:30)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Detroit_riot (2018-02-06 16:05)

- http://felderitokblogja.blog.hu/2018/01/22/http_felderitokblogja_blog_hu_2018_01_22_mn_3100_ahogy_en_latlak_most_egy_melysegi_felderito_katona_ (2018-02-06 18:14)

- M. M. KIRJAN (szerk.): A váratlanság szerepe az USA fegyveres erői hadműveleteiben ( Zrínyi Katonai Kiadó, 1986.)

- KOVÁCS Ferenc: Az amerikai tiszt (Zrínyi Katonai Kiadó 1987.)

- TÓTH Csaba (szerk.): A NATO-Hadtestek Dél- és Közép-Európában (MN Politikai Nevelőmunka Anyagi és Módszertani Központ, 1988.)

- SZABÓ Miklós: Zöldsapkások (Kossuth Kiadó, 1985.)

Sources of pictures:

- KOVÁCS Ferenc: Az amerikai tiszt (Zrínyi Katonai Kiadó 1987.)

- TÓTH Csaba (szerk.): A NATO-Hadtestek Dél- és Közép-Európában (MN Politikai Nevelőmunka Anyagi és Módszertani Központ, 1988.)