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> The guards gave the Americans a choice: Surrender the undocumented merchandise and enter Austria, or turn back into war-torn Eastern Europe. What war? This w

> The guards gave the Americans a choice: Surrender the undocumented merchandise and enter Austria, or turn back into war-torn Eastern Europe. What war? This was Hungary in 1994, 4-5 years after a surprisingly peaceful end of communist rule.

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DanBC 12y ago
They're talking about the wars following the breakup of Yugoslavia - the Bosnian War; the Croatian War of Independance etc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars Yugoslavia bordered the two countries mentioned - Austria and Hungary.
rostigerpudel 12y ago
Calling Hungary war-torn is a stretch, yes. But (South-)Eastern Europe at the time was an area of conflict and that was felt in Hungary as well. The end of communism was surprisingly peaceful. Yugoslavia rapidly disintegrating afterwards was an entirely different affair. Austria had a border with Yugoslavia - with the part that today is known as Slowenia. The actual independence war of Slovenia lasted only 10 days [1]. Still, troop movements happened in sight of the Austrian border and the Austrians were not happy at all. The outbreak of full conflict between the recently declared independent states of Croatia and Bosnia with Yugoslavia happend shortly after and was not over in 1993/94 [2]. So I guess any Austrian border patrol would have been wary of refugees/smugglers/shady elements crossing any eastern border. Hungary was never immediately affected by the war in the former Yugoslavia, but it had an enormously long border with a country at war with itself and the economic impact (loss of trade with the southern neighbours, influx of refugees etc.) could be felt in many ways. So, compared to western standards, Hungary might, at the time, have looked slightly less than appealing. In particular if you didn't know the local language and were smuggling... [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Day_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Day_War [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars
mxfh 12y ago
Couldn't get around the sensationalism either. There was no war in Eastern Europe at large in '94. There were the Yugoslav/Balkan wars, but they were exclusively on the territory of former Yugoslavia. Especially the borders of Austria were never in danger, let alone the Austrian/Hungarian border. At it's early height there was the Ten-Day War in Slovenia in '91, which was the closest the war came to Western Europe and its magnitude was less of that of one month of the ongoing conflict in Donbass/Ukraine. Even speaking of Hungary, which shares a border with Croatia, Slovenia, some with Serbia further south east[corrected], but not Bosnia the situation was tense but not war-torn. The peak of the Croatian part of the Yugoslav wars was over with the 1992 ceasefire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Day_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Day_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_War_of_Independence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_War_of_Independence
- foobarian 12y ago
  Hungary does share a border with Serbia, though whether you consider Vojvodina Serbia or not could be debated.

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DanBC 12y ago

They're talking about the wars following the breakup of Yugoslavia - the Bosnian War; the Croatian War of Independance etc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars Yugoslavia bordered the two countries mentioned - Austria and Hungary.

rostigerpudel 12y ago

Calling Hungary war-torn is a stretch, yes. But (South-)Eastern Europe at the time was an area of conflict and that was felt in Hungary as well. The end of communism was surprisingly peaceful. Yugoslavia rapidly disintegrating afterwards was an entirely different affair. Austria had a border with Yugoslavia - with the part that today is known as Slowenia. The actual independence war of Slovenia lasted only 10 days [1]. Still, troop movements happened in sight of the Austrian border and the Austrians were not happy at all. The outbreak of full conflict between the recently declared independent states of Croatia and Bosnia with Yugoslavia happend shortly after and was not over in 1993/94 [2]. So I guess any Austrian border patrol would have been wary of refugees/smugglers/shady elements crossing any eastern border. Hungary was never immediately affected by the war in the former Yugoslavia, but it had an enormously long border with a country at war with itself and the economic impact (loss of trade with the southern neighbours, influx of refugees etc.) could be felt in many ways. So, compared to western standards, Hungary might, at the time, have looked slightly less than appealing. In particular if you didn't know the local language and were smuggling... [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Day_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Day_War [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars

mxfh 12y ago

Couldn't get around the sensationalism either. There was no war in Eastern Europe at large in '94. There were the Yugoslav/Balkan wars, but they were exclusively on the territory of former Yugoslavia. Especially the borders of Austria were never in danger, let alone the Austrian/Hungarian border. At it's early height there was the Ten-Day War in Slovenia in '91, which was the closest the war came to Western Europe and its magnitude was less of that of one month of the ongoing conflict in Donbass/Ukraine. Even speaking of Hungary, which shares a border with Croatia, Slovenia, some with Serbia further south east[corrected], but not Bosnia the situation was tense but not war-torn. The peak of the Croatian part of the Yugoslav wars was over with the 1992 ceasefire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Day_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-Day_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_War_of_Independence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_War_of_Independence

foobarian 12y ago
Hungary does share a border with Serbia, though whether you consider Vojvodina Serbia or not could be debated.