Operation Safe Haven (1957)

Operation Safe Haven, also known as Operation Mercy, was a refugee relief and resettlement operation executed by the United States following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.^[1] Headed by task force commander General George B. Dany, it successfully evacuated over 27,000 Hungarian refugees to the United States over a period of 90 days, with an additional 11,000 being settled, also in the US, in the following year. ^[1] Operation Safe Haven was the most significant European humanitarian airlift since the Berlin Airlift.^[2] The operation, ordered by Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower was executed almost simultaneously to that launched by Elvis Presley at the closer of his last appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, as broadcast live to an audience of 54.6 million on January 6, 1957 and which eventually covered a quarter of a million refugees and their settlement in Austria and England.