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Reagan and Poland: Spies, Speculations, and Scapegoats
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12333 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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1 / 1987 |
2,363 Words |
| Author
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Janusz Bugajski
Janusz Bugajski is a research associate at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is
coauthoring a forthcoming book, East European Fault Lines:
Dissent, Opposition, and Social Activism. |
Five years ago, in December 1981, the Soviet-trained General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland. He unleashed a thorough and sometimes bloody police-military campaign to destroy the free labor union Solidarity, and with it society's aspirations for political pluralism, democracy, and national independence. Having succeeded in eradicating Solidarity from Poland's factories, farms, universities, and offices, and replacing it with submissive state-controlled bodies, the Warsaw regime has accelerated its efforts to besmirch the union and erase it from the nation's memory. Government spokesmen have repeatedly accused Solidarity leaders of nurturing close ties with the U.S. administration, but in recent months this propaganda story has been given a new twist. It is President Reagan who now stands in the dock, charged with betraying Solidarity.
Warsaw's official mouthpiece for the Western press, Jerzy Urban, claims that the White House was aware of martial law preparations weeks in advance, and withheld such information from Solidarity in the hope that civil war would ensue, creating grave international problems for Moscow. The administration was allegedly forewarned about martial law by a "CIA agent" in Jaruzelski's entourage - a Colonel Kuklinski. As a privileged member of the army general staff he participated in top-secret meetings and provided the United States with sensitive information on military preparations and the "final operational plan" for the crackdown. In early November 1981, the ever-vigilant Soviet intelligence services rushed to Poland's rescue by uncovering that vital secrets were leaking to Washington. (Incidentally, one must therefore assume that Soviet personnel were closely involved in martial law planning - something both Warsaw and Moscow have strenuously denied in the past.) Shortly after being exposed, Kuklinski was spirited out of Poland by American agents and has remained out of sight ever since.
Urban further claims that if Solidarity had been forewarned the implementation of martial law would have been impossible. Hence, the Polish public and Western observers are supposed to assume that the White House in effect conspired in the union's downfall. Is such a scenario likely, and why have the Polish authorities waited for nearly five years to "demystify" Reagan's support for Solidarity?
Provocative 'revelations'
Polish society has grown accustomed to Jerzy Urban's provocative "revelations"; his role is not simply that of press spokesman, he is an experienced verbal manipulator whose
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