Poles will be pleased and fascinated with “The Reagan Diaries”, edited by Douglas Brinkley. During Ronald Reagan’s eight years as President, he wrote in his diary almost every day. Although most of these entries briefly record meetings or events he attended, a number of them provide insights into his thinking. The diaries cite Poland 25 times.

Reagan’s first entry on Poland was July 14, 1981. He discusses Poland’s economy and his desire to do something to improve it, to include help from our NATO allies. Although this was his first entry on Poland, he often spoke to me and others prior to that time about Solidarity. On December 12, 1981 Reagan has the first of a number of entries concerning the declaration of martial law in Poland. He wrote that he believed the actions were engineered in the Soviet Union. I recall that during the weeks prior to and following the imposition of martial law, the White House spent long hours on the situation in Poland. The sparse entries on Poland in Reagan’s diaries for December 1981 do not reflect this, perhaps simply because he had so little time during this tense period. Although I myself was kept off direct involvement on the Poland issue (in order to stave off Soviet criticism of bias), and only participated indirectly, most arms control and other matters came a halt while the White House dealt with the crisis.

His next diary entry records a meeting with Cardinal Casaroli (the Pope’s Secretary of State), on December 15. Reagan writes that the imposition of martial law was not a “sudden reaction”, but that it must have taken weeks of planning. Again, although there were many Cabinet meetings on Poland during this time, he met often with experts such as Richard Pipes, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Jan Nowak. His next entry was not until December 21^st, when he wrote:

“I took a stand that this may be the last chance in our lifetime to see a change in the Soviet Empire’s colonial policy re: Eastern Europe. We should take a stand and tell them unless and until martial law is lifted in Poland, the prisoners released and negotiations resumed between Walesa (Solidarity) and the Polish government. . . [we would] quarantine the Soviets and Poland with no trade, or communications across their borders.”

The following day, Reagan recorded that he met with Ambassador Spasowski, who had decided to defect. I had talked with Ambassador Spasowski on December 12, to get his views on the imposition of martial law. He told me he was thinking about renouncing Communism and becoming a Catholic. His wife, who took part in our conversation, spoke passionately of her desire for her husband to be baptized a Catholic. This emotional conversation left me with a gut feeling that the Ambassador was about to defect, and I reported this to the President.

In January, 1982, President Reagan records several entries concerning Secretary Haig’s energetic activities for Poland. He writes on January 11 that “Haig seems to have won a moral victory in Brussels on NATO vs, Poland and the Soviets”. On January 26 he wrote that Haig met with Gromyko for 7-1/2 hours, and noted that while Haig talked about Poland, Gromyko talked about arms control. Throughout his tenure as secretary of State, Haig took an unusually intensive interest in garnering support for Solidarity.

On January 30, Reagan writes that the Soviets were attempting to split us apart from NATO. On February 19, 1982, Reagan writes that he saw a film on Poland. My wife and I had been invited to a small dinner party of about twelve, where this film was shown. It was [Andrzej Wajda’s] “The Man of Iron” (Człowiek z żelaza), about the shipworker’s strike in Poland. The President was so moved that he sobbed and was too choked up to speak.

On November 4^th, Reagan records that he attended a National Security meeting on Poland; this meeting probably pertained to the banning of Solidarity by the Polish Government on October 8^th.

On December 10, 1982, Reagan recorded that he signed the Proclamation on Human Rights in Poland. On this same day, I met with President Reagan and Senator Henry M. Jackson. Although the meeting was on the MX missile, I recall that Senator Jackson spoke about the sad state of affairs in Poland. Jackson had spoken to me a number of times previously about Poland and his support of the President’s Proclamation.

May 11, 1983 Reagan records that he met with Cardinal Krol, his emissary to the Pope, concerning food relief to Poland. I might add that President Reagan sought Cardinal Krol’s advice on how to deal with the Polish Government.

On June 23, 1983, Reagan writes that he met with leaders of Polonia on US support for Poland. I recall that the President frequently sought the advice of prominent Polish-Americans, chief among them, Edward Moskal, the President of the influential Polish-American Congress.

March 15, 1984 Reagan records the defeat of a Poland Human Rights bill in the UN Security Council. President Reagan often expressed disappointment that Russia’s veto power at the Security Council prevented progress on human rights.

August 28, 1984 Reagan cites an agreement to lift Poland’s sanctions, contingent upon on the government’s adherence to amnesty programs. There were bitter exchanges between the United States and the Communist government of Poland on this issue, which did not improve until after President Jaruzelski gave amnesty to all political prisoners in 1986.

February 19, 1987 Reagan records that he signed a lifting of sanctions against Poland at the behest of the Pope and Lech Walesa, because, he wrote “The sanctions were beginning to hurt the Polish people more than the Soviets and that was never our intention”.

April 24, 1987 Reagan writes that he talked to Congressman Rostenkowski about a possible trip to Poland. Reagan apparently decided that he would make a greater impact by going to Berlin in June where he made the challenging statement: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”!

May 4, 1988 Reagan reports that the Polish Government was getting rough on strikers at Gdansk, and two days later, on May 6, notes that the Polish Government had not yet turned the police loose on the strikers.

July 12, 1988 Reagan cites an offer by Gorbachev to remove Soviet planes from Poland, if the US removed ours from Europe, but commented that it wasn’t a fair deal.

In his final diary entry concerning Poland, Reagan writes on September 7, 1988 that Poland is chafing under Soviet rule. President Reagan finished his last days in office nine months before the dramatic events of November 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, signaling the end of the Soviet Empire and the subsequent rebirth of a free Poland.

The first entry in Reagan’s diary concerning Pope John Paul II occurred on February 6, 1981, some two weeks after his inauguration. Reagan expressed his disappointment that it was taking so long to get a security clearance for his Ambassadorial appointment to the Vatican, Bill Wilson. I had met Cardinal Karol Wojtyla here during an earlier visit, and helped plan his first Pastoral visit to the U.S. in October 1979. I was pleasantly surprised when I met candidate Reagan for the first time in January, 1980, to learn that he had met with the Pope, and was highly impressed by his wisdom and charm. During 1980, when I campaigned for Reagan, he made frequent references to his high respect for the Pope, and mentioned that he was greatly impressed by the Pope’s speech before the United Nations. Reagan said that the Pope would play a key role in keeping the Polish spirit alive.

On March 3, 1981 Reagan writes that he had a message from the Pope expressing general greetings.

On May 13, 1981 Reagan writes that he had heard of the shooting of the Pope. He adds that he called Cardinals Cooke and Krol, sent a message to the Vatican and prayed. Although not mentioned in the diary, the Pope had called President Reagan who had been shot by John Hinkley six weeks earlier. It is interesting that as he was recovering from his operation Reagan prayed to God to forgive Hinckley and that the Pope also forgave his assassin.

On December 14, 1981 Reagan writes that he had called the Pope expressing concern over martial law in Poland and his intention to keep close tabs on what was going on.

On April 17, 1982 Reagan recorded that he received a message of support from the Pope on peace efforts in the Falklands dispute. This is one of several diary entries which surprised me since the Pope normally played a neutral role in international disputes.

On June 7, 1982 Reagan writes about his visit to the Vatican to meet with the Pope. He said that a group of young American priests sang “America the Beautiful,” which left them all crying.

On June 27, 1983 Reagan writes that he met with Cardinal Krol who had returned from being with the Pope in Poland. He wrote that the Pope believes there might be some easing. Reagan added that he believed Walesa may not be as much of a force as he once was. This was the only time, to my knowledge, that Reagan expressed less than 100 percent confidence in Walesa.

On May 2, 1984 Reagan writes that he met with the Pope at Fairbanks, Alaska, where the Pope had stopped for a refueling visit on his way to South Korea and Reagan was on his way back from a visit to China. He said that they exchanged views.

On September 10, 1987 Reagan writes that he went to Miami to greet the Pope on his arrival for a tour of the United States. He added that they both spoke to the crowd of 5,000 people and later met one-on-one.

As with the diary entries on Poland, I have mentioned only the more important entries on the Pope. The entries fail to give a complete picture of Reagan’s contact with the Pope. For example, there were frequent meetings between our Ambassador to the Vatican and the Pope. Also, Ambassador Vernon Walters briefed the Pope on U.S. views concerning events in Poland. Although my four formal meetings with the Pope were on arms control, we spoke as well about matters in Poland.

On May 13, 1983, the editor of “The Reagan Diaries” records the President met with Lane Kirkland (president of AFL-CIO), along with a representative of the Catholic League for Human Rights and other foreign labor leaders. Reagan makes five entries on Kirkland in his diary, none of which refer to Solidarity or Poland. Yet, during Reagan’s campaign and throughout his presidency, he had many informal meetings with Kirkland on Solidarity, some of which I attended. Kirkland used his powerful position as President of America’s largest labor union to support Solidarity, morally and in more tangible ways. He not only supplied Solidarity’s Brussels office with cash, but funneled large amounts of communications equipment and paper for Polish publications backing Solidarity. Kirkland also skillfully infiltrated the International Labor Organization, which in many parts of the world supported the communists. I recall that on the day martial law was declared, Kirkland draped his office building with a 2 meter high black band of mourning. In bright red letters on the band was inscribed “Solidarnosc!” His office was only several hundred meters from the White House

Confessing to a lack of modesty, Reagan mentions me in his diary ten times. Two entries were substantive. On January 18, 1985 I met with President Reagan after he had divided my negotiations into three parts and said he wanted me to become his Special Advisor on Arms Control. He writes, “He sees this as a demotion.” He adds

“I…did my best to convince (him) it was nothing of the kind—that we need him and his expertise right here when these talks begin again. I’m not sure I convinced him.” Reagan was right, he did not convince me. However, over the next four years it turns out he was indeed right, since I had more influence as a Special Advisor than I had had as the Chief Arms Negotiator. The diary entry I liked best is the one he made on December 19, 1984, prior to my resumption of Arms Control Talks in Geneva. Reagan wrote about me: “He’s a good man.”

President Reagan’s diary entries concerning Poland give further evidence of the appropriateness of President Kaczynski’s posthumous award to Reagan of Poland’s highest medal. I believe that President Reagan and Pope John Paul II were the two men outside of Poland most responsible for Poland’s freedom from the yoke of Communism.

© Edward L. Rowny 2007

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