(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

[Cincinatus]

I have often been asked in the United States to sign the poster that many Americans consider very significant. Prepared for the first almost-free parliamentary elections in Poland in 1989, the poster shows Gary Cooper as the lonely sheriff in the American Western, "High Noon." Under the headline "At High Noon" runs the red Solidarity banner and the date--June 4, 1989--of the poll. It was a simple but effective gimmick that, at the time, was misunderstood by the Communists. They, in fact, tried to ridicule the freedom movement in Poland as an invention of the "Wild" West, especially the U.S.

But the poster had the opposite impact: Cowboys in Western clothes had become a powerful symbol for Poles. Cowboys fight for justice, fight against evil, and fight for freedom, both physical and spiritual. Solidarity trounced the Communists in that election, paving the way for a democratic government in Poland. It is always so touching when people bring this poster up to me to autograph it. They have cherished it for so many years and it has become the emblem of the battle that we all fought together.

Bump!

[snooker]

I sure think more highly of the Polish people than I do the selfish French. The true colors of France are starting to get very very clear. Selfish self centered country, it's all about me, me, me. No wonder they like the crass gigolo.

Maybe we should do more to help them? Poland has about half the population of France, that should be enough to out produce them easily.

[Professional Engineer]

One of my favorite pictures.

[EveningStar]

Wonderful article (wiping away the tears).

[maica]

We won that war. It was not without cost.
We were not allowed to count the costs, and mourn our dead, at the time.

####

So true, and it irritates me when I hear the mantra of "winning the cold war without firing a shot." The leftists try to make it sound like the doofus in the White house or at his ranch was "just lucky," and events "just happened."

[Tijeras_Slim]

Without Reagan, the freedom movements of Eastern Europe would have been crushed as in 1956 and 1968. The Western response would have consisted of handwringing, crocodile tears, and protests to the UN. God Bless Ronald Wilson Reagan.

[Travis McGee]

Every soldier who died in Korea, Viet Nam, Grenada, Beirut and all the other fronts died to win the Cold War and destroy communism.

Including every National Guard pilot who died flying a dangerous supersonic interceptor jet. They all died fighting in the same Cold War. It was one war, from 1945 to 1990.

[Travis McGee]

If the Carters, Clintons and Kerrys had been President, the Soviet Union would still be intact, and Eastern Europe and Nicaragua would still be communist. Probably a lot of the rest of Central and South America too: Peru, El Salvador etc. Or go back to Chile: a 'rat president would have had no problem propping up Allende, instead of helping to take him out.

[Aquinasfan]

What a generation of giants! I miss Ronald Reagan....

Lech Walesa, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II. Giants all. And we knew it at the time. Their legacies have only increased over time.

[Aquinasfan]

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.

I was reading an article in Readers' Digest a few months ago written by the speech writer who penned that line. The line was taken out and put back in several times. Various departments wanted to water down the statement.

In the end, RR gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up 8-)

[MeekOneGOP]

so I call on FReepers to continue. . . .

Consider it done, of course ! :^D

[The Sons of Liberty]

People in America take freedom for granted. They exercise their God given rights without a thought to the price that has been paid, and continues to be paid to ensure it. Only those who have been denied these rights fully appreciate them.

Ronald Wilson Reagan, by defeating communism, gave these rights to enslaved populations of central and eastern Europe. Ask the populations of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, East Germany and Poland. Abraham Lincoln will always be remembered as the Great Emancipator, but Ronald Reagan freed many more people than Lincoln ever did.

[speekinout]

Freedom cannot be defeated, if freedom is given a chance.

Exactly so. Reagan gave that to the people who had been oppressed by Communism, just as W will give it to those oppressed by radical Muslim regimes, if we have the courage to support him.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

we owe him our liberty.

Thanks for the tagline, Mr. Walesa.

[Robert Drobot]

BTTT!!!

[Spirited]

I, too, have continued to pray over the years for the blood spilt by unsung heros so that these peoples might go free.

Every time I hear "bloodless" I know that there are lists in all the nations of those who gave their lives for the wellbeing of others. May God reward them for we may not.

I pray the God will raise up such in Iraq who will stand for what is right and what is good.

[Bluntpoint]

Change the picture of Walesa to Larry Flynt and you will have Bill Clinton's funeral.

[Coleus]

In Solidarity-The Polish people, hungry for justice, preferred "cowboys" over Communists.