--- description: One year ago Hungary, Slovakia and Rumania declared war on the U.S. In Budapest last week the war-weary Hungarians told an apocryphal story of how their declaration of war had been relayed to... title: HUNGARY: How War Came image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # HUNGARY: How War Came by [TIME](/author/time/) Dec 21, 1942 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Dec 21, 1942 4:00 AM CUT One year ago Hungary, Slovakia and Rumania declared war on the U.S. In Budapest last week the war-weary Hungarians told an apocryphal story of how their declaration of war had been relayed to President Roosevelt by U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull. Hull: “Mr. President, Hungary has just declared war on us.” Roosevelt: “You don’t say? What is Hungary?” Hull: “Hungary is a small Balkan kingdom on the Danube.” Roosevelt: “A kingdom? Who’s the king?” Hull: “Hungary has no king. It is run by an Admiral.” Roosevelt: “An Admiral? Where’s his navy?” Hull: “He has no navy, only an army.” Roosevelt: “An army? Where is it fighting?” Hull: “It is fighting against Russia.” Roosevelt: “Russia? What is it fighting Russia for?” Hull: “To gain more territory.” Roosevelt: “From Russia?” Hull: “No, from Slovakia and Rumania.” Roosevelt: “Then why don’t the Hungarians fight Slovakia and Rumania?” Hull: “They can’t. Slovakia and Rumania are their allies.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6822263/hungary-how-war-came/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6822263/hungary-how-war-came/"},"headline":"HUNGARY: How War Came","datePublished":"1942-12-21T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-13T05:15:43.934Z","description":"One year ago Hungary, Slovakia and Rumania declared war on the U.S. In Budapest last week the war-weary Hungarians told an apocryphal story of how their declaration of war had been relayed to...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6822263/hungary-how-war-came/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6822263/hungary-how-war-came/","name":"HUNGARY: How War Came"}}]}] ```