Lantos, Tom

During World War II, Lantos was a member of the resistance movement and a prisoner of the concentration camp. Released by the Soviet army ^[5] .

After the war he emigrated to the USA. In 1998, he took part in the filming of the documentary film “ The Last Days ” about the Holocaust.

Since 1981, member of the House of Representatives of the US Congress from the Democratic Party , initially from the 11th, later from the 12th constituency of California . Since 2007, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs .

He died on February 11, 2008 in the medical center of the US Navy Bethesda from cancer of the esophagus . ^[6] Buried in Congress Cemetery .

Political Positions

For political views, Lantos was often considered as one of the more liberal members of Congress. His activities and beliefs included:

• protection of human rights , to which he attached central importance
• support for legalizing abortion and stem cell research
• opposition to the adoption of the law " Patriotic Act "
• support for sexual minorities, including their rights to marry and adopt children
• resistance to the death penalty
• support for legalizing soft drugs in medicine
• arms restriction

At the same time, in foreign policy, he generally adhered to the interventionist line. He often supported liberation movements directed against US rivals (for example, for Tibet’s independence from the PRC) and condemned directed against regimes loyal to Washington (for example, criticized the Polisario front, speaking out in support of the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara).

Lantos was among the representatives of the Democratic Party who most enthusiastically embraced the wars against Iraq in 1991 and 2003. Under his supervision, hearings were held in Congress, during which the famous “ testimony of Naira ,” the “15-year-old nurse,” who allegedly witnessed the barbaric massacre of Iraqi soldiers against Kuwaiti babies they threw out of their baby containers, was heard. Subsequently, it turned out that Naira was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States, and her speech was written by the Hill & Knowlton PR company. On October 4, 2002, a “for” vote of a small majority of Democrats led by Lantos in the Committee on Foreign Relations allowed a resolution to be used to use force that allowed George W. Bush to start a war in Iraq. Lantos distanced himself from the Bush administration’s policy toward Iraq only in 2006.

Attitude towards Russia

Lantos was known for his extremely hostile attitude towards the Russian authorities and was repeatedly distinguished by harsh statements in their direction. Once he compared Vladimir Putin with the hero of American cartoons by the cocky sailor Popeye and called his statements “incredibly stupid” ^[7] . Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Lantos called "a political prostitute now receiving checks from Putin," referring to Schroeder’s work for the North European Gas Pipeline construction company. ^[eight]

Becoming the new head of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the House of Representatives of the US Congress, said that the Russians were better off living under Yeltsin ^[9]