(Walesa) In Solidarity: The Polish people, hungry for justice, preferred "cowboys" over Communists

Wall Street Journal Editorial Page (Opinion Journal) ^ | June 11, 2004 | Lech Walesa

[Tamzee]

GDANSK, Poland--When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty. This can't be said often enough by people who lived under oppression for half a century, until communism fell in 1989.

Poles fought for their freedom for so many years that they hold in special esteem those who backed them in their struggle. Support was the test of friendship. President Reagan was such a friend. His policy of aiding democratic movements in Central and Eastern Europe in the dark days of the Cold War meant a lot to us. We knew he believed in a few simple principles such as human rights, democracy and civil society. He was someone who was convinced that the citizen is not for the state, but vice-versa, and that freedom is an innate right.

I often wondered why Ronald Reagan did this, taking the risks he did, in supporting us at Solidarity, as well as dissident movements in other countries behind the Iron Curtain, while pushing a defense buildup that pushed the Soviet economy over the brink. Let's remember that it was a time of recession in the U.S. and a time when the American public was more interested in their own domestic affairs. It took a leader with a vision to convince them that there are greater things worth fighting for. Did he seek any profit in such a policy? Though our freedom movements were in line with the foreign policy of the United States, I doubt it.

(snipped)

--Mr. Walesa, winner of the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, was president of Poland from 1990 to 1995.

[Citizen Soldier]

Reagan was the "Marlboro Man" and Walesa got it

[Tamzee]

The Polish Solidarity Poster, on file at the University of Texas...

[Tamzee]

In post 22 you can see the Polish "High Noon" poster Walesa was referring to...

[dfwgator]

That reminds me of that great "Bedtime for Brezhnev" poster. I've been trying to find it on the Internet but haven't found it.

[Mo1]

Thanks for finding it and posting it here

[PhilDragoo]

A cowboy's work is never done,
so I call on FReepers to continue. . . .

[Travis McGee]

Natan Scharansky was a Russian dissident rotting in a Gulag cell in Siberia, when he saw a copy of Pravda with a Soviet condemnation of Reagan's "evil empire" speech.

The awareness that an American President was standing up to the Soviet leaders and calling their regime evil spread through the gulag like a prairie fire, and lifted the spirits of the prisoners more than any news ever had.

This was a psychological tipping point in history, and communism's days were marked from that moment on. The era of detente and "peaceful coexistence," (the guarantee of perpetual communism) was over.

God Bless you, Ronald Reagan!

[potlatch]

Nice thought Phil, along with a nice picture!

[SAMWolf]

Cowboy Bump

[sarasmom]

Thank you for posting this.
All us old cold warriors especially appreciate the tributes, long overdue, currently being paid to our beloved former CINC.
Most people seem to have forgotten the mission of the DOD in the 1980s.
I will never forget, since I was part of it.
We won that war. It was not without cost.
We were not allowed to count the costs, and mourn our dead, at the time.
God bless Reagan.
He mourned our dead, and counted the costs, when everyone else found it expedient to ignore us.


Rest in peace, sir.

[SevenofNine]

COOL least somebody didn't forget what Ronnie did to the world yeah smackdown Soviet Union cause them to fall

RACK ITTT

[Tamzee]

Go to ebay and type in Brezhnev, there are some there... good luck!

[Tamzee]

I know there were many, many unsung heroes of the Cold War.... it did absolutely carry a human cost :-( I've often thought of those (you) who were fighting for freedom and our country's future very quietly with no parades and a nation that hardly ever heard of deaths much less mourned them. Thank you.

[Tamzee]

Fascinating and so uplifting to know this... thank you so much for posting the story.

[djreece]

bump

[ambrose]

Wonderful article...

Onyx, are you archiving all of the Reagan articles?

[hmmmmm]

I had flipped to C-Span and saw this compelling moment... a man, obviously a dignitary since he was "right there", shown from the back, his grief obvious. He was kneeling beside Our President Reagan, his hands lovingly smoothing the flag. Then the shot shifted and I saw who it was, Polish President Lech Walesa. I can't imagine ever forgetting that moment in time.

[Happy2BMe]

Ping on #26 - FReepers and Cowboys.

[laredo44]

This struggle was just one example of opression falling by the wayside to freedom.

The history of mankind is the history of liberty. It has been one long inexorable march. There have some detours, some side tracks, even some backtracking, and we have a ways to go yet, but that way is toward ever greater liberty.

[Mo1]

Millions of folks will Never Forget what Ronnie did for them