Technical assistance and socialist international health: Hungary, the WHO and the Korean War

ABSTRACT

From the establishment of the World Health Organization in 1948, the question of technical assistance was hotly debated by Eastern European countries. Recuperating from the war and undergoing radical political change, they were both recipients and donors of technical assistance in a newly forming system of international health. These countries had specific ideas about the obligations of states and the role of technical aid that did not necessarily map on the dominant, US-led interpretation. While there is a growing literature on technical assistance between Eastern Europe and the so-called Third World, the role of technology and expertise at the intersection of liberal and socialist international health has been little explored. Through the case of hospital-building projects and expert networks from a Hungarian perspective, this paper asks how we can understand socialist engagement in international health, and how technical assistance among the Second and Third worlds fitted into broader systems.

KEYWORDS:

• North Korea
• technical assistance
• Korean War
• Hungary
• health and medicine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Fodor, “Feljegyzés.”

2. Kocsis, “Magyar orvosok Koreában.”

3. See for instance Amrith, Decolonizing International Health; and Packard, A History of Global Health.

4. Hong, Cold War Germany, and Iacob, “Uncomfortable Proximities.”

5. On modernization, development and technical assistance, see Wolfe, Competing with the Soviets; Ekbladh, The Great American Mission; Immerwahr, Thinking Small. For the socialist context, see Engermann, “Learning from the East”; Stanek, “Architects from Socialist Countries”; Mark and Slobodian, “Eastern Europe”; Mazurek, “Polish Economists in Nehru’s India.”

6. DiMoia, Reconstructing Bodies; and Harrison and Yim, “War on Two Fronts.”

7. Hong, Cold War Germany, 14.

8. Bruchhausen, “Between Foreign Politics and Humanitarian Neutrality”; Frank, Die DDR und Nordkorea.

9. Armstrong, “‘Fraternal Socialism’.”

10. Méray’s reports were collated in two volumes and published in 1952 and 1953. Méray, Tanúságtétel.

11. Transnational adoption in connection with the Korean War was not particular to the socialist world. See e.g. Kim, Adopted Territory.

12. See Szalontai, Kim Il Sung; Hong, “Through a Glass Darkly,” 43–73.

13. Csoma, From North Korea to Budapest.

14. Baev and Kim, “Korea in the Bulgarian Archives.”

15. Vavrincová, Czechoslovak-North Korean Relations.

16. Szyc, “The Relations between Poland and North Korea.”

17. Armstrong, “‘Fraternal Socialism’,” 164.

18. Hong, “Through a Glass Darkly.”

19. Valdova, “Czechoslovakia in the Korean War.”

20. See note 14 above.

21. Ministerstvo Stravookhranenija KNDR (ed.): Vtoroj nauchnyj s’’ezd vrachej Koreja. Thanks to Tobias Rupprecht for the help with translation.

22. Sayward, The Birth of Development.

23. Hong, Cold War Germany, 31.

24. Bakács, Egy életrajz ürügyén.

25. Second World Health Assembly, 68.

26. Lotysz, “A ‘Lasting Memorial’ to the UNRRA?”

27. Second World Health Assembly, 97.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid., 104.

30. Ibid., 99.

31. Reinisch, “Internationalism in Relief.”

32. Amrith, Decolonizing International Health, 87.

33. See for instance surveys of the Ministry for Health and Welfare in Hungary.

34. Special Administrative Office for Europe.

35. Special Office for Europe.

36. Second World Health Assembly, 96.

37. Fee, Cueto and Brown, “At the Roots.”

38. Farley, Brock Chisholm, 218.

39. Telegram to Dr. Brock Chisholm.

40. Vladimir Poptomov to Dr. Brock Chisholm.; Anna Ratko to Dr. Brock Chisholm; V. Siroky to Dr. Brock Chisholm.

41. Julian Przybos to Dr. Brock Chisholm.

42. Hong, Cold War Germany, 27.

43. Kocsis, “Magyar orvosok Koreában (1950–1957).”

44. “Feljegyzés a Koreába küldendő kórház-gyűjtéssel kapcsolatos hangulatról.”

45. Csoma, From North Korea to Budapest, 19; “Koreáért!”; “Az ország minden részében”; “A magyar nép válasza.”

46. Quoted in Csoma, From North Korea to Budapest, 18.

47. Fendler, “The Korean War,” 51–52.

48. Wittman, “Koreában hálásan”; László, Manzé Rákosi; Munkában a Rákosi Mátyás kórház; “A koreai nép”; Csoma, From North Korea to Budapest.

49. Bayly, “Vietnamese Narratives of Tradition.”

50. This was, of course, not exclusive to Hungary. See for example North Korean technical assistance and aid programs in Africa in Owoeye, “The Metamorphosis.”

51. See note 2 above.

52. Heltai, “Dr. Dénes János.”

53. Böszörményi, Emlékek Koreáról.

54. Frankl, „A halál küszöbén.”

55. Politikai beszámoló.

56. Wittman, „Dr. Wittman István.”

57. See note 52 above.

58. A 47. sz. hadikórház.

59. See note 52 above.

60. Ibid. See also Cumings, The Korean War: A History.

61. Armstrong, “‘Fraternal Socialism’,” 162.

62. See note 53 above.

63. Ibid., Heltai, “Dr. Dénes János.”

64. Harrison and Yim, “War on Two Fronts” For later periods see also Jung and Kim, “It All Started from Worms.”

65. See note 52 above.

66. A 47. sz. hadikórház, Berényi, Az V. Magyar Egészségügyi csoport.

67. Bonta, “Letter to Dr. István Wittman.”

68. Fügi, „Emlékezés Koreára.”

69. Ministerstvo Stravookhranenija KNDR (ed.): Vtoroj nauchnyj s’’ezd vrachej Koreja.

70. Fendler, “The Korean War,” 55.

71. Andrássy, „Naplórészlet.”

72. Részlet.

73. Harrison and Yim, “War on Two Fronts.”

74. Fügi, „Korea egészségügye.”

75. Park, “History of Neurosurgery.”

76. Böszörményi, “A tuberkulózis elleni küzdelem”; Fügi, “Korea egészségügye,” Géher, “A paragonimiasisról”; and Géher, “Über Paragonimiase.”

77. Hong, Cold War Germany.

78. Baev and Kim, “Korea in the Bulgarian Archives”; and Sárkány, “Gyermekorvosi tapasztalatok.”

79. There are exceptions, see Birtalan and Máté, “A klasszikus kínai orvostudomány.”