New Munitions for Freedom: America's Commandeering of Hungarian Refugee Youth to Fight the Cold War, 1956-1957

This thesis follows US state objectives in aiding Hungarian refugee youth after the revolt of 1956, relating them to the wider context of the Cold War. The refugee population that fled into Austria was remarkably young, educated, and to the capitalist world represented the failure of communism to provide for its youth. Observing these trends, the federal government undertook unprecedented interventions into refugee affairs to absorb Hungarian refugee youth and to capitalize on the moral, economic, and propaganda boons provided by their youthful status to further Cold War objectives. Through reliance on primary source research in seven archives, this thesis reveals collaborations between the state, voluntary refugee agencies, and civil society demonstrating that young refugees in particular were perceived by the state as valuable commodities through which the US could advance national and geopolitical goals. From unaccompanied minors spiritually assimilated into US society through a system of “morals-based resettlement” to contrast communist atheism, to university students integrated into American academia through a federally-assisted scholarship program to close the technical gap, and to other students recruited for a CIA-backed propaganda tour to Asia, each subset of refugee youth represented an asset for the US in their long crusade against communism. Compiling these narratives for the first time demonstrates that Hungarian refugee youth broadly speaking, with all their associated vitality, vigor, and promise, were instrumentalized to bolster the US position in the Cold War.