Professor Gati talked about his new book, Failed Illusions: Moscow, Washington, Budapest, and the 1956 Hungarian Revolt, published by the Stanford University Press. In marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Hungarian revolution, the Embassy of the Republic of Hungary hosted Professor Gati, who described the 1956 Hungarian revolution and the international political environment at the time. He argued that Hungary’s suppression by the U.S.S.R. was a key event in the Cold War and suggested that the revolution could have succeeded if NATO and President Eisenhower had been more decisive. After his presentation he responded to audience members' questions. 

Professor Gati is a political scientist who fled his native Hungary during the 1956 revolt. He served as the senior adviser to the State Department Policy Planning staff in the early 1990s. He also wrote The Bloc That Failed: Soviet-East Relations in Transition and Hungary and the Soviet Bloc.