The voice of professional diplomacy: Joshua Butler Wright in Hungary, 1927–1930

Abstract After Theodore Brentano's long tenure (1922–1927), a new American minister arrived in Hungary, who in many ways was a very different breed from his predecessor. Joshua Butler Wright was a career diplomat and, as it turned out, the only such American minister in Hungary in the interwar years, which meant a somewhat different approach to the job. Many in Hungary also interpreted the change as a positive sign as to the country's greater importance for Washington. However, this was not to be. Butler Wright's three years in Budapest did not bring any fundamental changes in the relationship between the two countries, and Hungary's importance, or the lack thereof, to the United States remained as before: as long as there was a politically stable government in Hungary and it did not cause diplomatic headaches to Washington, the American State Department was satisfied with reading about the political and economic situation in Hungary. Therefore, any Hungarian hopes or expectations that the United States might help in the revision of the Treaty of Trianon were frustrated.