Obama’s First Test Might Be On Polish Border

Washington DC, Nov. 7, 2008 – Today Polish American Congress (PAC) President Frank Spula called on President-elect Barack Obama to act with firmness and vision in what looks like the first foreign policy crisis the new Administration will face, that is Russian threats against Poland for standing firm in favor of the NATO alliance.

“Even before they were elected, Vice President-elect Joe Biden warned that the new Administration would likely be tested in its first days,” Spula said.  “News reports from Poland and Russia, echoed by major U.S. media such as National Public Radio and MSNBC, have this week pointed to the likelihood that that test will be fought out over Poland’s unwavering commitment to its democratic allies.

Unfortunately, Spula added, “even though Poles and Polish Americans have since the foundation of the Jamestown colony [the first Poles arrived in Virginia in 1608] been at the forefront of the fight for liberty on American soil and allied with the United States against tyranny, from Hitler’s Germany to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, after World War II Poland’s friendship was betrayed by a cynical realpolitik that meant for it half a century of being tied to the Soviet gulag. 

“We call on President-elect Obama, who has deservedly earned the respect, affection and support of peoples around the world, to stand firm in favor of the United States’ most steadfast ally in Eastern Europe.”  

Spula noted that the PAC was born at the end of World War II with the mission not only to inform the American public about the tragic situation in Poland, but also to instruct the Americans of the dangers in continuing to placate a menace that it considered as bad as Nazi Germany—Soviet totalitarianism.

As the PAC communicated the same day it was established in a memorandum to then U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull:

“Poland’s complete immolation had profound and far-reaching consequences. Facing a conspiracy of two of the greatest military powers in the world (Germany and Russia) and threatened by an attack by both of these totalitarian powers, Poland rejected capitulation and decided to accept an unequal struggle, thus literally sacrificing the life or the prosperity of each and every Pole.  … It is a well-established historic fact that the Polish nation, by its decision to fight, effectively prevented Hitler’s world conquest. Free in her decision, led by the spirit of solidarity, and true to her obligations, Poland rejected Hitler’s proposal and, by so doing, prevented him, at a time when England, America, and France were unarmed and unprepared, from conquering all of Europe and most of Africa. … Therefore we address ourselves to you, Mr. Hull, with a frank avowal that recent developments fill us with deep concern. … the Soviet Government violates international law in the same way as did Hitler.”

As World War II was coming to a close, Spula pointed out, American Polonia felt “deceived” by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for having created the impression that Poland would be free within its pre-war borders, when in fact, months earlier, he and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had already conceded Poland’s eastern territories to Stalin.

After the war’s conclusion, Spula added, the PAC became one of the first U.S. organizations to warn of the threat to peace and freedom posed by the Soviet Union, resulting in the United States adopting a principled set of foreign policy initiatives in NATO and the Marshall Plan, which dealt effectively with the Soviet threat from the late 1940s until the USSR’s collapse in 1991.

“In 1999, Poland was admitted to NATO as a full member, and has worked hard, maybe harder than any other country, to prove itself worthy of membership in the trans-oceanic alliance of democratic countries, with the latest conflict with Russia just one more chapter in an ongoing effort at imperialist hegemony by the what remains of the former Soviet Union,” Spula concluded.  “Russian threats of aggression against Poland are dangerous, and I believe directly related to the desperate desire of the Kremlin to focus domestic attention away from the fact that the Russian stock market has lost three-quarters of its value this year.”

“We fully support President-elect Obama as he looks to ways to reduce tensions and create democratic security throughout Eastern and Central Europe.  All the hallmarks of his successful electoral campaign—meaningful support for democracy and human rights, and the peaceful negotiation of differences—is why we are confident he will protect Poland in its hour of growing danger.” (MEA) 

Polish American Congress
1612 K Street, N.W. Suite 410
Washington, D.C. 20006
Tel: (202) 296-6955
Fax: (202) 835-1565
Web: www.polamcon.org