Thank You, America

[funkedup]

Poles and all our allies.

Thank You, America

By Jan Nowak
Wednesday, July 3, 2002; Page A23


This July 4, many Americans may feel baffled and disappointed by the waves of anti-Americanism sweeping through countries that, not too long ago, were either saved or helped by the United States. Allies such as France and Great Britain and former enemies such as Germany and Japan benefited greatly from America's generosity and support in their time of need, as did Belgium, Holland, Italy, Russia, Poland, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan and others. Without the United States, some of these countries might no longer exist.

Those of us who remember and remain grateful should no longer remain silent. For people like me -- and there are millions of us -- this Fourth of July is a good opportunity to say, "Thank you, America."

My old country, Poland, is a good example. I was born 89 years ago on the eve of World War I in Warsaw, when Poles were forced to live under the despotic rule of the Russian czars. In 1917 Woodrow Wilson made the restoration of Polish independence one of his 14 conditions for peace. If it had not been for Wilson, Poland might have disappeared forever from the map of Europe. The United States did not have any strategic or economic interests in this remote eastern part of the European continent. But thanks to America, the ambitions of the Hohenzollern empire to dominate all of Europe were thwarted.

The war in Poland did not end in 1918, however. For six more years, the wheels of war rolled over the Polish countryside as Poles fought to repel the invasions of the Red Army. The country was left in ruins. Food was scarce. The undernourished population was hit by epidemics of typhoid and Spanish flu.

I belong to the generation of children of this era, the early 1920s, who were saved by the benevolent intervention of the United States, in the person of the future president Herbert Hoover. As a private citizen, Hoover organized the emergency supplies of food, medicine and clothing that saved a starving and sick nation. I still remember the tin boxes inscribed "American Relief Committee for Poland."

The Polish state survived, but with no economic resources, no reserves of gold or foreign currencies. Roaring inflation had brought the country to the verge of collapse. The United States came forward once again, providing the Dillon loans, which helped stabilize the Polish economy.

Following the surrender of France in 1940, Hitler was only one step from victory. The United States, by joining Great Britain as it faced alone the greater might of Nazi Germany, and at enormous sacrifice of young American lives, saved European civilization and its values. It is known that Hitler's postwar plans called for elimination of Poland's educated classes, while the rest of the population was to become slave workers. Once again, the United States saved the lives of millions. I am grateful to have been one of them.

Tragically, the defeat of Nazi Germany did not bring freedom to the nations of east and central Europe. Hitler's tyranny was replaced by Stalin's terror. It was the United States that contained the Soviet Union's drive for domination of Europe. It understood before others that the Cold War would be a struggle for human minds.

One of its major weapons in this war was the skillful use of radio. As a former radio operator with the Polish underground and later a broadcaster with the BBC foreign service, I was recruited in the early 1950s to start the Polish service of Radio Free Europe (RFE). No country but the United States would launch or could have launched such an ambitious undertaking, broadcasting from dawn to midnight.

RFE destroyed the monopoly of the Communist public media and frustrated the efforts of the Soviet Union to isolate the satellite countries from the outside world. Citizens of these countries had only to tune in to the RFE frequency to learn what their governments were attempting to hide from them. People were able to get the information they needed to form their own views, even if they could not speak them. Their minds remained free.

Workers' strikes were banned under communism. So when Polish shipyard workers in Gdansk, led by Lech Walesa, defiantly called a strike in August 1980, the government immediately ordered a news blackout. But within hours, the whole country knew of the workers' resistance and related developments from RFE broadcasts. Because the Communists feared a general strike might follow, they quickly agreed to a compromise settlement with the shipyard workers. Solidarity was born.

The following year, however, the Communist leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, sought to destroy the movement by imposing martial law. The United States responded by applying a sophisticated carrot-and-stick policy in which Jaruzelski was never forced into a position where he had nothing to lose and nothing to gain. Economic sanctions were imposed, but economic assistance was promised. The patient and consistent application of this policy over the next eight years resulted in the survival of Solidarity, which emerged triumphant in 1989.

News of this victory spread rapidly to East Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Bucharest and Sofia, as well as Moscow, through the broadcasts of RFE, Radio Liberty, RIAS (Radio in the American Sector, Berlin) and the Voice of America. The overthrow of Poland's Communist dictatorship inspired millions throughout the Soviet orbit, unleashing an avalanche that brought down the Berlin Wall and led to the reunification of Germany, the self-liberation of the nations of east-central Europe and eventually the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Poland formed the first non-communist government in the former Soviet empire. But the nation's economy remained a disaster area. Again the United States came to the rescue. Poland's first democratic government and the nation's economy were saved by U.S. leadership in proposing and aggressively promoting an emergency international financial assistance package.

In the spring of 1998, I watched from the public gallery of the U.S. Senate as it ratified the admission into NATO of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. For the first time in its history, my old country was not only free but also secure.

Thank you, America.

From the Washington Post

[Cherlie]

yawns

[Cabby44]

Funked:

Lech Walesa was in NC recently and i got the opportunity to listen to him talk(thru an interpreter)about Poland, the USA, the fall of Communism, and the situation in the world today.

The guy had a unique point-of-view  to say the least, but in a nutshell,  it was very refreshing to hear some sense coming from a European leader's(former leader anyway)mouth for a change.

Thanks for the post........

Cabby

[Raubvogel]

Originally posted by Cherlie
yawns

It bores you to hear the praise of someone who actually appreciates the sacrifices of those young men who gave their lives so we could live as we do now? That's pretty damn pathetic.

[Kieran]

Cherlie-

Your sig should read "Evansville, IN".

[Karnak]

Boy, talk about revisionist history.  That load of tripe was full of it.

Honor people for what they did, don't make up accomplishments because you undersell how important and hard what they really did was.

Lies honor no one.

[-tronski-]

Following the surrender of France in 1940, Hitler was only one step from victory. The United States, by joining Great Britain as it faced alone the greater might of Nazi Germany, and at enormous sacrifice of young American lives, saved European civilization and its values. It is known that Hitler's postwar plans called for elimination of Poland's educated classes, while the rest of the population was to become slave workers. Once again, the United States saved the lives of millions. I am grateful to have been one of them.

Tragically, the defeat of Nazi Germany did not bring freedom to the nations of east and central Europe. Hitler's tyranny was replaced by Stalin's terror. It was the United States that contained the Soviet Union's drive for domination of Europe. It understood before others that the Cold War would be a struggle for human minds.

Hrmmmm didn't realise the US army liberated Poland from the Germans...I bet the Red Army will be most dissapointed to hear about that.

Eradication by the Nazis....domination by Stalin (how did the russians dominate Poland if they didn't actually enter Poland?) - theres just no pleasing some people

 Tronsky

[Tumor]

Originally posted by -tronski-
Hrmmmm didn't realise the US army liberated Poland from the Germans...I bet the Red Army will be most dissapointed to hear about that.
Tronsky

Hey ya gotta point... Betcha they all wish they were still living under Soviet rule and miss Stalin too.

[Staga]

I don't think they were happy about that but I'd say it was better option than stay under nazi command.
Anyway Russia with its civilians and Red Army paid horrible price when fighting against Germany and it was them who drove german army from Poland.

Being opressed by  red army and communist regime is another story.

[Toad]

On August 23, 1939 Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact, called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty. Secret protocols of the treaty defined the territorial spheres of influence Germany and Russia would have after a successful invasion of Poland. Hitler had been creating justifications and laying plans for such an invasion since April.

According to the agreement, Russia would have control over Latvia, Estonia, and Finland, while Germany would gain control over Lithuania and Danzig. Poland would be partitioned into three major areas. The Warthland area, bordering Germany would be annexed outright to the German Reich, and all non-German inhabitants expelled to the east. Over 77,000 square miles of eastern Polish lands, with a population of over thirteen million would become Russian territory. The central area would become a German protectorate, named the General Government, governed by a German civil authority.

On September 1,1939 Hitler's forces invaded Poland from the west. According to plan, Soviet troops invaded Polish territory from the east on September 17. Poland surrendered on September 27. The next day Poland was partitioned according to the treaty's scheme, ending a brief twenty year period as an independent nation. “

When the Soviet Union invaded Poland there were in effect the following treaties and agreements between the governments of Poland and the Soviet Union:

The Peace Treaty between Poland, Russia and the Ukraine signed in Riga, on March 18, 1921, by which the Eastern frontiers of Poland were defined.

The Protocol between Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Rumania and the USSR regarding renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy, signed in Moscow on February 9, 1929.
 
The Non-Aggression Pact between Poland and the USSR signed in Moscow on July 25, 1932.
 
The Protocol signed in Moscow on May 5, 1934 between Poland and the USSR, extending until December 31, 1945, the Non-Aggression Pact of July 25, 1932.
 
The Convention for the Definition of Aggression signed in London on July 3, 1933.


Liberators, right?  

[culero]

Originally posted by -tronski-
Hrmmmm didn't realise the US army liberated Poland from the Germans...I bet the Red Army will be most dissapointed to hear about that.

snip

You mean the Red Army that the Germans would have almost certainly exterminated had it not been for the US being involved?

The same Red Army led by the same Stalin who initially agreed  with Hitler to partition and gobble Poland up before the war?

Please

culero

[Thrawn]

Although this has nothing to dow with the veracity of the posted article.

Alot of people at agw seemed pretty convinced that Russia would have won the war without American lend/lease materiel and daylight bombing in Europe.

[culero]

Originally posted by Thrawn
Although this has nothing to dow with the veracity of the posted article.

Alot of people at agw seemed pretty convinced that Russia would have won the war without American lend/lease materiel and daylight bombing in Europe.

Well, of course its a matter of opinion at this point, and I certainly cannot prove them wrong.

However, I can and do firmly believe that without the US involvement both as a combatant and a supplier of materiel, Germany would have certainly conquered all of Europe.

As to daylight bombing, I really wouldn't call that as decisive a factor as the the US ground forces involvement. I doubt the UK could have mounted a viable invasion without that, and believe the necessity of defense on two fronts to have been the decisive factor in Germany's failure against the USSR.

IMO, too much credit is given to US daylight bombing, Germany weathered that quite well as a matter of fact - it really didn't become an overwhelming factor until the very last months of the war.

culero

[Leslie]

Czechoslovakia is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia.   The Czech Republic is part of Nato.  Is Slovakia part of Nato, is it Soviet, or neutral?  Am interested because I don't know, and thought some of you would know.  Thank you.




Les


Lech Walenza is a very capable leader and statesman, who gained the respect of the Soviets through hard work and determination.

[GRUNHERZ]

Wow look at the US hating hating communists coming out of the weeds.  It must be so hard for all to have lived in the great satan of the USA with her stormtroopers when the glorious liberators of the USSR and the benevolent citizen soldiers Red Army were but only an Aeroflot flight away for the past 50 years, how eved did survive here?

Death to Amreeka!