|
Thank You, America
By Jan Nowak
Washington Post,
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.
The writer directed the Polish service
of Radio Free Europe for 25 years.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
|
