István Kertész (diplomat)

Stephen Denis Kertesz
Photo of Stephen D Kertesz from the 1952 University of Notre Dame Yearbook
Stephen D. Kertesz, circa 1952
Born
István Kertész

8 April 1904
Putnok, Hungary
Died26 January 1986(1986-01-26) (aged 81)
South Bend, Indiana, USA
Nationality Hungarian
OccupationDiplomat
Known forHungarian representative at the Paris Peace Conference

István Kertész (later known as Stephen Denis Kertesz) (April 8, 1904–January 26, 1986) was a Hungarian diplomat who represented Hungary during the peace talks following World War II.

Biography

He was born on April 8, 1904, in Putnok, Hungary, to Lajos and Mária (Stolcz) Kertesz.[1] He received a Dr. Jur. from the University of Budapest in 1926, and a diploma from the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Paris in 1928.[2] During the Second World War, worked in the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 1943-1944, made efforts to convey the intentions of Admiral Miklós Horthy to surrender to the Allied powers in order to avoid further damage to the country.

After the war, Kertész opposed the Soviet takeover of Hungary and tried to avert the Allied demand to expel the German minority from Hungary. In 1946, Kertész represented the Hungarian government at the Paris Peace Conference. In March-August 1947, he served as Ambassador in Italy.[3]

In February 1948, he fled Hungary and emigrated to the United States, where he lectured on diplomacy and international relations.

Works

  • Stephen Kertesz, Diplomacy in a Whirlpool (Greenwood Press, London 1974, reprint of the 1953 edition)
  • Stephen Kertesz, Diplomacy in a Changing World (Greenwood Press, London 1974, reprint of the 1959 edition)
  • Stephen Kertesz, “The Expulsion of the Germans from Hungary: A Study in Postwar Diplomacy”, The Review of Politics, Vol. 15, no. 2 (April 1953) pp. 179–208
  • Stephen Kertesz (ed.), Nuclear Non-Proliferation in a World of Nuclear Powers (Notre Dame, IN, 1967)
  • Stephen Kertesz, The Last European Peace Conference, Paris 1946, Conflict of Values (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1985)
  • Stephen Kertesz, Between Russia and the West: Hungary and the Illusions of Peacemaking, 1945-1947 (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984)

Further reading

  • Kenneth Thompson, Diplomacy and Values: The Life and Works of Stephen Kertesz in Europe and America (University Press of America, 1984)

References

  1. ^ Bognár, Desi K. (ed.), Hungarians in America: A Biographical Directory of Professionals of Hungarian Origin in the Americas. Philadelphia: Afi Publication, 1971, 110.
  2. ^ Bognár.
  3. ^ Smoking Hot: Hungarian Dragons and Chimneys with Dr. Kertész Pál