Though despised in most Western European capitals, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán may be the man who has met the moment, argues Rod Dreher in The European Conservative. Engineering Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s upcoming face-to-face meeting in Budapest is “a diplomatic triumph” for Orbán, argues Dreher, one that might provide the catalyst to finally bring an end to Russia’s calamitous war on Ukraine.
Toppling a Communist Empire for $2.7 Million
Though widely thought of as focused on waterboarding terrorists or poisoning foreign potentates, it was by smuggling paper that the CIA achieved its most monumental triumph. R.M. Gerecht in a book review for The Washington Free Beacon charts how the late Cold War-era operation to flood Poland with Western books, magazines, printing supplies and audio recordings fatally weakened the country’s Communist dictatorship, setting the stage for the downfall of the entire Soviet empire. Total cost: US$2.7 million.