Aid to Poland Must Be Generous
DENICKE, CEORGE P.
Satellite rebels watching U.S. response to Gomulka plea Aid to Poland Must Be Generous By George P. Denicke At his April 2 press conference, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was questioned...
...We would like to see further progress toward democracy in Poland: most Poles want it, too—doubtless more ardently than we do...
...After a month of negotiation, U.S...
...The opposition to such surrender, in the party and in the country as a whole, would face a dire choice: either to bow to Soviet power or to try desperately to overthrow it—with Hungarian consequences...
...farm products...
...from half a year ago—and that formal Polish-American negotiations in Washington have already lasted five weeks...
...The paramount fact, recognized by most Poles both in Poland and in courage in advance all tendencies in the satellite countries to follow the Polish example...
...Was this encouraging or discouraging to the Polish "trend toward independence...
...Unfortunately, United States policy too often has been one of encouraging words and discouraging deeds...
...As Joseph Alsop ably summed it up: "A government that is good enough for Cardinal Wyszynski ought to be good enough for Senator Knowland...
...Refusing adequate and generous aid to Poland means to disatmosphere that prevails in Poland today...
...The present policy of Gomulka and his government is to escape this awful choice and to preserve the degree of independence Poland has already achieved...
...authorities "leaked" the idea to the press that we would provide somewhere between $50 and $75 million, or less than a fourth of what the Poles had asked...
...What wo must do is precise!* what Dulles said: oncourage Poland's trend toward independence...
...During the last war, I remember writing in The New Leader that French resistance to Nazism was a lot easier to contemplate in New York than in France...
...But they do hope we will help them maintain the degree of liberation which thev won with their own hand...
...Wbich has it been, thus far...
...But it means even more than that...
...If this hope is betrayed, the Poles must consider themselves isolated in the face of overwhelming Soviet power...
...Substantial American aid to Poland is necessary not only to help the Poles defend their achieved degree of independence but also to encourage the "trend toward independence" in all the countries subjugated by the Kremlin...
...Poland is in an extremely difficult economic situation...
...But in Poland every day makes a difference...
...Disaster will result if the Poles see no way out of their crisis without surrender to Moscow (most probably through the assumption of power by nationally independent but still Communist country...
...Nevertheless, as the situation stands today, there is no way to help Poland and its "trend toward independence" without helping the present Polish government...
...She does not have the resources to meet the most acute and urgent problems...
...economic aid to Poland...
...response to Gomulka plea Aid to Poland Must Be Generous By George P. Denicke At his April 2 press conference, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was questioned about U.S...
...There is no doubt that the political essence of the question of aid to Poland is the Polish need for encouragement...
...It is perhaps not sufficient from our point of view, not sufficient for most Poles either, but it is a tremendous achievement measured against the former enslavement...
...Bitterly the Polish newspaper Zycie Warszawy quoted a Washington Post editorial which said the Administration was not giving the green light to the Polish request because it was paralyzed by fear of offending right-wing Congressmen...
...To refuse adequate aid to Poland means, in effect, to collaborate in Moscow's efforts to undermine the position of the Gomulka regime— and thus to help lead Poland to a new enslavement...
...He probably does not sympathize with many so-called "revisionists" in his party, who are pressing for further liberalization and democratization...
...Some time after Gomulka's trip to Moscow (November 18), in which the Soviets made their own vague aid promises, the Poles let it be known that they had asked the United States for credits and loans amounting to $300 million, a large proportion of which would reach Poland in the form of surplus U.S...
...Is it so difficult to grasp the psychology of the Poles or the tense the Stalinist Natolin group...
...The Poles will hold out as long as they have hope...
...by their daring challenge to Moscow...
...Obviously, the manner in which the Polish request for aid is being treated in Washington can be either highly encouraging or discouraging...
...And Zycie Warszaivy wrote: "We must draw attention to the fact that the first American statements on die possibilities of expanding economic relations with Poland still date from the time of the Presidential election campaign—that is...
...She needs help, substantial help, and immediately...
...Ever since Gomulka's speech to the October meeting of the Polish Communist Central Committee, it has been plain that massive aid was necessary to rehabilitate an economy and mass living standards wrecked by 17 years of war and Stalinist exploitaGeorge P. Denicke, a former Moscow University history professor, is a veteran observer of Soviet polities...
...The tight-fisted attitude of our negotiators, as described in press reports, may well lead to the tragic result that we will offer the Poles just enough aid to provoke Stalinist charges of "dollar imperialism," but not nearly enough to make a difference in Poland's desperate economic plight...
...In this case, it is a hope that can and should be supported bv the free world...
...The same can be said today with regard to Polish resistance to Soviet pressures...
...The Poles are certainly entitled to expect generous aid from a government which proclaimed the policy of "peaceful liberation'' of the satellites...
...It was precisely this discrepancy that recently drove our Western European allies to distraction...
...Perhaps his middle course is more than a forced compromise...
...The Poles are not asking us to liberate their country...
...The Poles risked a great deal—how much, we saw in Hungary...
...Not only are political and economic factors involved, but psychological ones as well...
...Despite generous but vague promises of aid by President Eisenhower and Secretary Dulles (and a "crash" decision by the National Security Council) during the election campaign, it remained for the Poles to name the first figure...
...We cannot rebuff those among them who took the solemn declarations of the President and Secretary of State seriously...
...But let us not confuse actual encouragement with words meant to be encouraging...
...But their desires have different limits...
...Gomulka is in a difficult position, facing opposition from two sides...
...Where can it come from...
...Our country is rich and it has been, and can be, generous...
...For Poland today is a beacon to independent spirits throughout the Soviet Empire...
...But we cannot encourage that trend by mere words, and we may well discourage it by throwing the Poles an obviously inadequate sop...
...His reply contained some pertinent remarks...
...Five weeks may not appear a long time to bureaucrats in Washington, where there was no revolution, no heroic resistance to anything...
...it may well correspond to his idea of a exile, is that Gomulka is a Polish patriot who wants his country to be independent and who has shown that he can fight for that independence...
...Apart from the Soviet Union (and we know all too well the conditions of Soviet "aid"), the only hope is America...
...Dulles noted that "some of the satellite countries are seeking to exercise a greater degree of independence," and declared: "We are anxious to encourage that trend toward independence...
...Having risked what they did, they gained something: a greater degree of independence...
...No one can seriously object to these words...
Vol. 40 • April 1957 • No. 15
