Eulogy for P.M. Kaiser

The Death of P.M. Kaiser

Philip M. Kaiser, a former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, died on May 24 in Washington, D.C., at age 93, following a short illness. Mr. Kaiser was ambassador to Hungary during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, from 1977 to 1980. Previously, he had served as ambassador to Senegal and Austria.

In an interview deposited in the oral history archive of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library (Independence, Mo.), Mr. Kaiser assessed his significant role in returning to Hungary the Crown of St. Stephen, which had been in custody in the U.S. since World War II. Aware of Hungarian party chief Kádár’s efforts at decentralizing the state-run economy, as well as achieving a rapprochement with the West – thereby gaining a modicum of independence from the Soviet Union – Mr. Kaiser argued that the return of the Crown, a symbol of Hungarian statehood, would help Hungary in these efforts.

At the same time, Mr. Kaiser characterized Kádár as a “turncoat,” who betrayed the 1956 revolution, but also recognized Kádár’s genuine popularity in Hungary, which the party leader had secured by gradually distancing himself from rigid Stalinist policies. In 1987, Mr. Kaiser foresaw Kádár’s downfall; by this time the 75-year-old dictator had lost a great deal of his youthful verve, and Hungary’s economy was in the doldrums.

Mr. Kaiser summed up his memories in an autobiography published in 1992, “Journeying Far and Wide: A Political and Diplomatic Memoir” (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).