BUDAPEST, Hungary -- In a country whose self-image is that of the downtrodden and ignored, people found it normal that the first announcement of President Clinton's pending visit came not from official channels.
No, Hungarians had to read about it in the papers.
"This shows how important the media is," Hungarian diplomat Istvan Gyarmati said with a shrug. "I'm not very formal, so I don't care about formal notification. What is important is to know when the plane will land."
Presumably, the White House will advise Mr. Gyarmati, the head of the host Hungarian delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), of the precise plans of the president, who is currently scheduled to zip in and out of Budapest tomorrow.
Diplomats were anxious for Mr. Clinton to attend the closing summit of the 52-member CSCE, knowing the president's presence would elevate the coverage and image of the policy-heavy event.
Spurned again?
But when rumors spread last month that Mr. Clinton might not personally show up, Hungarians responded with characteristic resignation: Spurned again.
This is a nation so used to being a victim, Hungarians seem to expect it at every turn.
You can hardly blame them: During the past 800 years or so, Hungary has been trampled by everyone from the Mongols to the Turks. Hungarians lost Transylvania to Romania. They were on the wrong side of both world wars. In 1956, Hungary suffered a bloody loss to the Russians, who quashed a would-be revolution here.
Even now, the public face of Hungary is often as dark as Budapest's December afternoons. There is little talk or laughter on the subways, where locals literally keep their heads down. Hungary has the highest suicide rate in the world.
Even the national anthem plays the song of victimization:
"She struggles with an enemy . . . She, whom bad luck has been weighing down. Give her happy years; this nation has already repented for the past and for the future."
The question of whether Mr. Clinton would visit Budapest has also fueled a competition with Prague, Budapest's picturesque neighbor to the west.
Did Clinton prefer Prague?
Hungarian newspapers speculated that perhaps Mr. Clinton favored the Czech capital over the grittier Budapest because he had been to Prague in his youth.
It gets even more personal when Hungarians talk about the West's behavior during the 1956 uprising. Many Hungarians say they were led to believe by Radio Free Europe that the United States would help them fight the Russians. That help never came.
"There's a feeling that the West owes Hungary for 1956, like the West ordered it up like a pizza and didn't pay for it," said Bob Cohen, a Hungarian-American writer here. Hungary has an "historical victim syndrome," he said. "The Hungarian sense of betrayal runs quite deep."
Now struggling to rebuild its post Cold War economy, Hungary wants to belong to the West, metaphorically and literally. It wants to join both NATO and the European Union.
Not Eastern Europe
Any mention of being in "Eastern Europe" here is likely to draw a snappy correction from the Hungarians, who now list their address as Central Europe, although they never moved.
Now welcoming the biggest event ever held here, Budapest is hoping that the CSCE conference -- and its attending legion of world leaders -- will bring Budapest into the international limelight.
But even that honor has its downside to the Hungarians, who will endure massive traffic jams and a suffocating security presence when the foreign leaders arrive today.
"It's a disaster," said Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky. "For the city, it will help to improve our image."
But for the Hungarians? "They will be very fed up, I think," he said.