Skepticism and stability: Reevaluating U.S. Policy during Poland's Democratic Transformation in 1989

Journal of Cold War Studies

Volumn 13, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 52-82

  Domber, Gregory F ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84864782332     PISSN: 15203972     EISSN: 15313298     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1162/JCWS_a_00142     Document Type: Article

References (111)

1. George Bush, "Interview with Foreign Journalists, " 21 November 1989, in Public Papers of the President of the United States: George Herbert Walker Bush (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989), p. 1588.
2. See, for example, Vladislav Zubok, A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), p. 324.
3. George Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), p. 117.
4. James A. Baker, III, The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1995), p. 45. The comparison being made is to the administration's policy of direct discussions with Moscow based on "discreet, measured reciprocity. "
5. Robert Hutchings, American Diplomacy and the End of the ColdWar: An Insider's Account of U.S. Diplomacy in Europe, 1989-1992 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), p. 10.
6. Robert Gates, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), p. 471.
7. Constantine Pleshakov, There Is No Freedom without Bread! 1989 and the Civil War That Brought Down Communism (New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2009), p. 236.
8. Jacques Levesque, The Enigma of 1989: The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), pp. 122, 139.
9. Bush and Scowcroft, World Transformed, p. 13.
10. Bush and Scowcroft, World Transformed, p. 13.
11. George H.W. Bush, "Remarks at the Boston University Commencement Ceremony inMassachusetts, " 21May 1989, in Public Papers of the President of the United States: George Bush (1989), pp. 501-504. The text of the address is also available on the Bush Presidential Library website, http:// bushlibrary.tamu.edu/.
12. Baker, Politics of Diplomacy, pp. 69-70.
13. Bush and Scowcroft, World Transformed, p. 12.
14. Jack Matlock, Autopsy of an Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union (New York: Random House, 1995), pp. 182-183.
15. Tom Simons, interview, Washington, DC, 7 July 2000.
16. Hutchings, American Diplomacy, p. 37.
17. Simons, interview.
18. George H. W. Bush, "Remarks to Citizens in Hamtramck, Michigan, " 17 April 1989, in Public Papers of the President of the United Stattes: George Bush (1989), p. 322. The text of the remarks are also available on the Bush Presidential Library website, http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/.
19. SecState to Amembassy Warsaw, "Demarche to Polish Ambassador on President's Speech on Poland, " 17 April 1989, in National Security Archive (NSArchive), End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables. These steps were codified as National Security Directive 9, "Actions to Respond to Polish Roundtable Agreement, " signed by the president on 8 May 1989. For a copy of the directive, see http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/pdfs/nsd/nsd9.pdf. For the Polish report on the conversation, see "Waszyngton, 17 kwietnia 1989 r. Ambasador Jan Kinast do dyrektor Departamentu III MSZ o swojej rozmowie z Rozanne Ridgway, asystentem sekretarza stanu ds. Europy i Kanady, " in Henryk Szlajfer, ed. Ku wielkiej zmianie: Korespondencja mie{ogonek}dzy Ambasada{ogonek} PRL w Waszyngtonie a Ministerstwem Spraw Zagranicznych styczeń-pavdziernik 1989 (Warsaw: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN, 2008), pp. 112-114.
20. A sanitized copy of NSDD 54, 2 September 1982, is available at the Ronald Reagan Library, Simi Valley, CA, National Security Decision Directives collection, and on the library's website.
21. Notatka Informacyjna dot. wizyty w Polsce zaste{ogonek}pcy Sekretarza Stanu USA Johna Whiteheada (12-14 pavdziernika 1988 r.), 15 October 1988, p. 4, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archive (MSZ), 42/92, W-6, Dep. III (1988), AP 220-25-88.
22. Notatka Informacyjna dot. wizyty w Polsce zaste{ogonek}pcy Sekretarza Stanu USA Johna Whiteheada (12-14 pavdziernika 1988 r.), 15 October 1988, p. 4, Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archive (MSZ), 42/92, W-6, Dep. III (1988), AP 220-25-88.
23. "Address to the Nation about Christmas and the Situation in Poland, December 23, 1981, " in Public Papers of the President of the United States: Ronald Reagan (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1981), pp. 1023-1027. The text of the address is also available on the Reagan Library website, http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/.
24. Amembassy Warsaw to Secstate, "Polish Situation: U.S. Policy, " 27 December 1981, in NSArchive, Soviet Flashpoints, Box 26, December 26-29, 1981. See also Memorandum from H. Allen Holmes to the Secretary, "Poland-Additional Bold Move for NSC, " 22 December 1981, in Malcolm Byrne, Pawel Machcewicz, and Christian Ostermann, eds., Poland 1980-1982: Internal Crisis, International Dimensions, A Compendium of Declassified Documents and Chronology of Events (Washington, DC: National Security Archive, 1997), pp. 407-408.
25. "Notatka z rozmowy z przedstawicielem Ambasady USA w Warszawie p. Howardem w dniu 30. xii.1981r" in MSZ, 30/85, W-2, Dep III (1982), AP 22-1-82/A; and Cable from USMission Geneva to Secstate, "(S) U.S. Statement on Poland, " 12 January 1982, in NSArchive, Soviet Flashpoints Originals, Box 1.
26. Reagan officially rejected the Marshall Plan-style approach at a National Security Planning Group meeting on 8 April 1983. See Ronald Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat NSPG, Box 1, NSPG 0061, 8 April 1983 [Poland].
27. For references to this possibility in the underground Polish press, see "Historyczny: Porównania?" Tygodnik Mazowsze, No. 6 (13March 1982), p. 4.
28. Janusz Onyszkiewicz, interview, Warsaw, 8 July 2010.
29. Plan solidarnonci gospodarczej z Polska{ogonek}, 4 December 1988, in Hoover Institution Archives, Zdislaw Najder Files, Box 6, Facts and Views.
30. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Tall Tales about U.S. Marshall Plan, " 20 June 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
31. Neil A. Lewis, "Clamor in the East: Gratitude and a Request, " The New York Times, 16 November 1989, p. A7,
32. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Wale{ogonek}sa Emphasizes the Need for an Appropriate Western Response, " 28 April 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
33. SecState to Amembassy Warsaw, "Department Meeting with Solidarity Adviser Jacek Kuron, " 3 June 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
34. Cable from SecState to AmembassyWarsaw, "Acting Secretary Eagleburger'sMeeting with Solidarity Leader Geremek, " 23 May 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
35. John Davis, interview, Washington, DC, 23 November 1999.
36. See Briefing Memorandum from H. Allen Holmes to Amb Stoessel, "Your Meeting with Polish Deputy Prime Minister Zbigniew Madej, 7 December, " in NSArchive, Soviet Flashpoints Originals, Box 3.
37. See Memorandum from Robert M. Gates to the Director of Central Intelligence, "Assistance to Poland: Tuesday's NSCMeeting, " 4 December 1981, in NSArchive, Soviet Flashpoints Originals, Box 1; and CIA Memorandum, "Poland, " 10 December 1981, in NSArchive, Soviet Flashpoints Originals, Box 1.
38. "Warszawa, 20 kwietnia 1989 r. Notatka informacyjna ministra spraw zagranicznych o wysta{ogonek}pieniu prezydenta Georga Busha w Hamtramck, " in Szlajfer, ed., Ku wielkiej zmianie, p. 120.
39. For explanations of PZPR priorities for economic support, see "Waszyngton, 22 lutego 1989 r. Ambasador Jan Kinast do podsekretarza stanu w MSZ o swoich rozmowach z czlonkami Rady ds. Stosunków Zagranicznych, " in Szlajfer, ed., Ku wielkiej zmianie,.
40. "Waszyngton, 17 maja 1989 r., Józef Czyrek do prewodnica{ogonek}cego Rady PaństwaWojciecha Jaruzelskiego o swojej rozmowie z zaste{ogonek}pca{ogonek} sekretarza stanu Lawrencem Eagleburgerem, " in Szlajfer, ed., Ku wielkiej zmianie, p. 127.
41. For transcripts of these meetings in the fall of 1988 and other secret negotiations throughout 1989, see Krzysztof Dubiński, Magdalenka: Transakcja epoki (Warsaw: Sylwa, 1990).
42. For an excellent analysis of Bush's views beyond Eastern Europe, see Jeffrey A. Engel, "A Better World... butDon't Get Carried Away: The Foreign Policy of George H.W. Bush Twenty Years On, " Diplomatic History, Vol. 34, No.1 (January 2010), pp. 25-46.
43. Hutchings, American Diplomacy, p. 69.
44. Cable from USMission NATO to SecState, "Presentation by DAS Simons at April 13 NAC on Poland, " 14 April 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
45. For examples of this reporting, see Amembassy Rome to SecState, "Western Response to Polish Reforms-Continued Consultations, " 1 June 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables; Cable from Amembassy Bonn to SecState, "Western Response to Polish Reforms-Consultations with the FRG, " 2 June 1989, in NSArchive, End of the ColdWar, Poland 1989 Cables; Cable from Amembassy Vienna to SecState, "Western Response to Polish Reforms-Austria, " 5 June 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables; and Cable from Amembassy Tokyo to SecState, "Western Response to Polish Reforms-Continued Consultations Japan, " 5 June 1989 in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
46. "Declaration on East-West Relations, " 15 July 1989, in University of Toronto G8 Information Center, http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/summit/1989paris/east.html.
47. Hutchings, American Diplomacy, p. 63. For the meeting at which Deputy Assistant Secretary Curtis Kamman (who replaced Simons in June) explained the results of the G7 summit to Kinast, see SecState to Amembassy Warsaw, "Briefing the Polish Ambassador on Results of the Paris Summit, " 25 July 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
48. Amembassy Brussels to SecState, "EC Food Aid Program for Poland, " 10 August 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
49. Amembassy Brussels to SecState, "EC-Poland Trade and Cooperation Agreement Signed, " 8 August 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
50. As 1990 progressed, the Bush administration did increase the size of U.S. aid to Poland, particularly through the rescheduling of Polish debt as well as direct funding arranged by Congress. Nonetheless, these moves came in the months after the key political changes had occurred in Poland.
51. Dubiński, Magdalenka.
52. Stephen Kotkin with Jan Gross, Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment (New York: Modern Library, 2009), p. 125.
53. Bush and Scowcroft, World Transformed, p. 37. For reporting from the embassy, see Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "PZPR Plenum Clears Way for Round Table, Possible Eventual Relegalization of Solidarity, " dated 18 January 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables. For State Department analysis, see SecState to AmembassyWarsaw, "Official-Informal 009, " dated January 18, 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
54. Hutchings, American Diplomacy, p. 8.
55. Bush and Scowcroft, World Transformed, p. 26.
56. "Record of Conversation between Gorbachev and Kissinger, " 17 January 1989, trans. by Svetlana Savranskaya, in NSArchive, Russian and East European Documents Database.
57. "Record of Conversation between Yakovlev and Kissinger, " 16 January 1989, trans. by Svetlana Savranskaya, in NSArchive, Russian and East European Documents Database.
58. For the fullest treatment of these conversations, see Strobe Talbott and Michael Beschloss, At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War (Boston: Little, Brown, 1993), pp. 13-17, 19-20.
59. For the fullest treatment of these conversations, see Strobe Talbott and Michael Beschloss, At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War (Boston: Little, Brown, 1993), pp. 13-17, 19-20.
60. Thomas Friedman, "Baker, Outlining World View, Assesses Plan for Soviet Bloc, " The New York Times, 28 March 1989, p. A1.
61. Beschloss and Talbott, Highest Levels, pp. 45-46.
62. Bush, "Remarks to Citizens in Hamtramck, Michigan. "
63. George H.W. Bush, "Remarks at the United States Coast Guard Academy Commencement Ceremony in New London, Connecticut, " 24 May 1989, Public Papers of the President of the United States (1989).
64. Baker, Politics of Diplomacy, pp. 137-138.
65. Baker, Politics of Diplomacy, pp. 137-138.
66. Rice and Zelikow, Germany Unified, p. 74.
67. Baker, Politics of Diplomacy, p. 148.
68. "Presentation by DAS Simons at April 13 NAC on Poland, " 14 April 1989.
69. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Election '89-The Year of Solidarity, " 19 April 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
70. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Election '89: Solidarity's Coming Victory: Big or Too Big?" 2 June 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
71. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "How to Elect Jaruzelski without Voting for Him and Will He Run, " 23 June 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
72. During the Round Table negotiations, the PZPR led a coalition of political parties, including the United Peasants' Party and the Democratic Party. These parties were remnants of much earlier political strategies to create a national front, but until 1989 they never acted with any autonomy from the dictates of the PZPR.
73. "How to Elect Jaruzelski without Voting for Him, " 23 June 1989.
74. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Crisis Develops over Election of Polish President, " 30 June 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
75. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Poland's Political Crisis, Walèsa's Views, " 1 July 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
76. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Political Crisis Intensifies, " 1 July 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
77. Bush and Scowcroft, World Transformed, p. 117.
78. Notatka Informacyjna dot. wizyty oficjalnej prezydenta Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki George H. Bush (9-11 lipca 1989 r.), 18 July 1989, in MSZ, 2/94, W-9, Dep III (1989), AP 220-9-89. Published in Szlajfer, ed., Ku wielkiej zmianie, pp. 177-197.
79. Notatka Informacyjna dot. wizyty oficjalnej prezydenta Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki George H. Bush (9-11 lipca 1989 r.), 18 July 1989, in MSZ, 2/94, W-9, Dep III (1989), AP 220-9-89. Published in Szlajfer, ed., Ku wielkiej zmianie, pp. 177-197.
80. Hutchings, American Diplomacy, p. 66.
81. Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, p. 121. At the luncheon at Ambassador Davis's residence, Wale{ogonek}sa was seated at the head table with President Bush and PZPR Politburo member Mieczyslaw Rakowski, while Jaruzelski (who was no longer head of the government; only head of the party) was seated with Mrs. Bush. This gesture, however, took place in a private setting, not in sight of the public.
82. David Hoffman, "Chanting Polish Crowds Provide Bush With Footage for '88 Campaign, " The Washington Post, 4 October 1987, p. A18.
83. For PZPR expectations of the visit, see "Warszawa, 19 maja 1989 r. Pilna notatka ministra spraw zagranicznych w sprawie wizyty prezydenta Georgea Busha w Polsce, " in Szlajfer, ed., Ku wielkiej zmianie, pp. 130-136, esp. 131-132.
84. See Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Jaruzelski to Face the Nation and Then Run for President, " 17 July 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables; and Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Jaruzelski Meets with the Solidarity Caucus and Now Will (#), " 18 July 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
85. Mieczyslaw Rakowski, Dzienniki polityczne 1987-1990 (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo ISKRY, 2005), p. 475.
86. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Solidarity Describes How It Engineered the Election, Debates Whether to Form a Government, " 24 July 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
87. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Interior Minister Kiszczak Proposed as Prime Minister, " 1 August 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
88. "Warszawa, 11 sierpnia 1989 r. Minister spraw zagranicznych do zaste{ogonek}pcy ambasadora w sprawie przekazania stronie amerykańskiej onwiadczenia na temat rozwoju sytuacji w Polsce, " in Szlajfer, ed. Ku wielkiej zmianie, pp. 203-205.
89. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Conversation with General Kiszczak, " 11 August 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
90. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "New Prime Minister May Fail to Form a Government, Will Walesa Try Next?" 14 August 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
91. "Conversation with General Kiszczak, " 11 August 1989.
92. SecState to Amembassy Warsaw, "Solidarity-Government Dialogue, " 12 August 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
93. For early signals from Soviet officials that they would accept a Solidarnonść government, see Jan Skórzyński, Rewolucja Okra{ogonek}glego Stolu (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Znak, 2009), pp. 366-367.
94. Beschloss and Talbott, Highest Level, p. 87.
95. Bush and Scowcroft, World Transformed, p. 135.
96. Bush and Scowcroft, World Transformed, p. 135.
97. Baker, Politics of Diplomacy, p. 64.
98. Constantine Pleshakov notes that Secretary of State Baker played a key role in negotiating the transfer of East German citizens who had sought refuge in the West German embassy in Prague, through East Germany to West Germany. This episode needs further exploration, but was most likely devised to relieve pressure caused by the refugee crisis and stabilize the situation rather than to facilitate the collapse of the East German state. See Pleshakov, There Is No Freedom without Bread! pp. 183-184.
99. Kotkin, Uncivil Society, pp. 54-61.
100. Kotkin, Uncivil Society, pp. 54-61.
101. See Kotkin, Uncivil Society, pp. 85-94.
102. As both Leffler and Meyer have argued, this misinterpretation of U.S. leadership as a catalyst of the revolutions in 1989 has influenced later U.S. foreign policy. See Melvyn Leffler, "Dreams of Freedom, Temptations of Power, " in Jeffrey A. Engel, ed., The Fall of the Berlin Wall: The Revolutionary Legacy of 1989 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 132-169.
103. Hurst, Foreign Policy, p. 11.
104. "Response by Jeffrey A. Engel, Texas A&M University, " in H-Diplo Roundtable Review, Vol. 11, No. 25 (May 2010), p. 20. http://www.h-net.org/_diplo/roundtables/PDF/Roundtable-XI-25.pdf.
105. Engel, "A Better World, " p. 27.
106. Sarotte, 1989, p. 8.
107. Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of 1989 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague (New York: Random House, 1990), p. 42.
108. Skórzyński, Rewolucja Okra{ogonek}glego Stolu, pp. 315-317.
109. Onyszkiewicz, interview.
110. Amembassy Warsaw to SecState, "Election '89-Solidarity's Victory Raises Questions, " 6 June 1989, in NSArchive, End of the Cold War, Poland 1989 Cables.
111. Onyszkiewicz, interview.