President Kekkonen tried to amend FCMA Treaty in 1956

Kimmo Rentola

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President Urho Kekkonen tried to downgrade the value of the Finnish-Soviet Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance after the occupation of Hungary in 1956. The surprising revelation came out on in a talk by Professor Kimmo Rentola at a seminar of the prestigious foreign policy forum, the Paasikivi Society on Wednesday.
      In January 1957 Kekkonen sent a secret proposal to the Soviet leadership proposing changes in both the FCMA Treaty and the Paris Peace Treaty. A couple of months earlier Soviet tanks had rolled into Hungary.
      Finland and the Soviet Union had extended the FCMA Treaty by 20 years in 1955.
      According to the changes proposed by Kekkonen, Finland’s neighbours and the NATO countries would have given a solemn affirmation not to attack Finland, or to use Finland as a route to attack any other country. The FCMA Treaty would have been secondary.
     
“In Moscow this was seen as an attempt to alter relations between the countries. Finland, which was frightened by the events in Hungary, sought international guarantees for its neutrality, and for a stronger defence. Kekkonen was seen to have yielded to pressure from the political right”, Rentola said.
      The leadership of the Soviet Communist Party told Kekkonen that his proposal was not acceptable.
      “This double initiative was not the best example of Kekkonen’s foreign policy skills and consideration. Instead, it showed loss of focus, or panic, if not both.”
      The entire project was buried, and the initiative was not discussed in public. Kekkonen defended the FCMA Treaty right to the end of his long presidency.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Among friends - Finnish-Soviet treaty in retrospect (6.4.2008)

Links:
  Paasikivi Society

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