Andrew Field in Poland-An Editorial
EDITORIAL Andrew Field in Poland IN Moscow, United States and Soviet negotiators were gathered around the conference table working out the details of a new graduatestudent exchange program....
...There was confusion about the dates on the visas, and there may even have been a heated argument complicated by a language barrier...
...The guard, perhaps deciding that he had carried things too far, left for a few minutes and returned to say they could continue...
...Certainly it would not have been excessive to suggest that Poland thus risked jeopardizing its "most favored nation" standing with the U.S...
...In the interim, he has done other articles and reviews and become not merely a valued contributor but a friend...
...Field, accompanied by the three now familiar border guards, was next taken across Poland to Lublin...
...The State Department called to say, with mild embarrassment, that upon checking it had learned Field was indeed under arrest...
...True, it is naive to assume that the Poles would automatically accede to a Soviet request for Field's release...
...Shortly afterward, he was informed his wife could go but he was being detained...
...on the morning of January 23 we received the following cable: ANDREW DETAINED POLAND SEEMS FALSE CHARGES NO TRIAL CAN YOU HELP...
...What had happened, as Mrs...
...From the story Andrew Field told U.S...
...There had been no word, though, of their being in any difficulty...
...None of the reporters present penetrated the fog thrown up by Spokesman Robert McCloskey...
...The next day at Terespol, on the Soviet-Polish border, a guard boarded the train to check passports...
...Field broke down and began to cry...
...On Saturday, February 15 (three days after this issue went to press), the trial took place...
...No, she could not be found...
...One question, of course, concerns the matter of exchange programs themselves...
...The consulate, in turn, called the chief border guard, who readily agreed the incident seemed nothing more than a minor misunderstanding, indicated that at most a small fine might have to be paid, and said a car would escort the Fields to an early train...
...officials and seemed well, it was her first news of him—although immediately upon arriving in Berlin she reported to the American High Commissioner's Office and remained close by...
...As it happened, the first report of Field's arrest came from The New Leader...
...While at the hotel, Field was able to phone the U.S...
...As the days turned into weeks for Andrew Field in Poland, one had the feeling that Washington's primary desire was not to do anything that might cause tension at the conference table in Moscow, or give the impression that we were prepared to flex our muscles in Warsaw...
...Unwilling to leave her waiting alone, he insisted on seeing her off on the first train to Berlin...
...The U.S.-USSR exchange negotiations in Moscow, in fact, presented a unique opportunity to act indirectly through an involved third party...
...We have long felt, and continue to feel, that such programs are ultimately far more valuable than may be generally recognized...
...Following four hours of interrogation, a night in a small town jail, and a second night in a Lublin prison, he was transferred to a prison in Warsaw...
...There, finally, formal charges were lodged: "striking a Polish border official" and "using offensive language to a Polish border official...
...Field at Harnack Guest House, West Berlin...
...Less than 24 hours after starting our own search for her, we located Mrs...
...The details were lacking, but U.S...
...Back in the border house Field was asked to sign a paper, purportedly for railroad tickets, which he declined to do...
...Field, speaking in Russian, offered to buy new visas on the spot, a not uncommon practice...
...consular officers, which matched the story his wife told us, there was little question that he did not "strike" anyone...
...The time had come, we thought, for both official and public pressure...
...Still, it was not inconceivable that The New Leader should be asked for assistance...
...Yet if young Americans travelling in strange countries are to be subject to the Fields' experiences, if there is to be no allowance for honest error, one cannot help wondering about the viability of the experiment...
...Within a few hours our inclination to believe the cable authentic proved correct...
...Shortly before 9 a.m...
...Unconsciously placing a hand on the guard's lapel, Field then pleaded: "Now look what you've done to my wife...
...AUDREY FIELD A call to Ralph Jones, Deputy Director of the Student Exchange Program at the State Department, put us in touch with another man in the same office who knew the Fields were en route to Paris for a two-week vacation to celebrate their third wedding anniversary...
...Instead, after 24 hours of indecision, the incident was diligently pursued...
...A week later, with the Poles having lodged their indictment and the trial irrevocably set, the tactic no longer seemed very useful...
...Direct pressure on the Poles seemed even more justifiable...
...yet the attempt to employ Soviet intervention ought not to have been excluded...
...New visas were purchased, pleasantries exchanged, including the wish for a safe and happy journey, and the man left the train...
...But Polish officials could easily have gotten to the root of the misunderstanding by checking the dates on the Fields' visa applications in Moscow...
...Since queries had not come in from others who might have been expected to receive a similar cable—e.g., Harvard, where Field is a doctoral candidate in the Slavic Languages Department —it was even possible that we were the butt of someone's sick joke...
...At a State Department meeting to discuss the affair this view was debated, but those who favored keeping things in low key prevailed...
...They also knew his itinerary: that he was where he was supposed to be on the day he was apprehended...
...The Soviets, after all, were Field's hosts...
...But if it is wrong to bluster, does it follow that it is right merely to bleat...
...consulate at Poznan and tell him what had occurred...
...Bail— unprecedented in these circumstances—was set at $3,000...
...Minutes later six border guards came on and ordered the Fields off "for an explanation," assuring them that another train would be along in three hours...
...Field was instructed to hire a Polish lawyer and to prepare to stand trial...
...Field described it to us, was this: The Fields left Moscow late Monday afternoon, January 20, and were to travel across Poland to Germany...
...The approach appeared sensible, particularly in the light of the minor nature of the incident...
...Field's parents posted the $3,000 bail...
...Had anyone been in touch with Audrey Field...
...But it was evening before three border guards appeared, apologizing that their car had broken down, and another train was missed...
...He told the Fields their visas were not good for January 21...
...In Warsaw, Andrew Field, who should have been back at Moscow University under terms of the agreement just expired, after 9 days in jail and 15 days on bail was about to stand trial for what was at most a communication failure...
...Won't you please allow us to go on...
...Field's initial contribution to these pages, "The Not So Dissonant Voices in Soviet Literature...
...And while for all its bizarre elements the story of the American exchange student run afoul of bureaucracy in Poland is a fairly straightforward one, it raises many serious questions...
...Throughout these past weeks we have been in touch with the State Department almost daily...
...Upset by the guard's aggressive attitude, Mrs...
...Three hours later, however, the Fields were told that regrettably the train coming through was a freight train...
...At the Polish-East German border town of Slubice the Fields were greeted by an English-speaking Pole who identified himself as an interpreter...
...Except for the enterprising New York Herald Tribune, the major national newspapers reacted with a sluggishness characteristic of our journalism, long overfed by handouts...
...When we informed her by transatlantic phone that her husband was in contact with U.S...
...His wife, who meanwhile had applied for a return visa, soon joined him in Warsaw...
...Friday, January 21, Andrew Field was set free...
...No other transportation being available, they were taken to a small hotel in Slubice where they spent the night and most of Wednesday, January 22...
...At the outset, the State Department thought it wisest to move quietly through diplomatic channels: to avoid a public display that would force the Poles into rigid defensiveness...
...consular officials were being permitted to see him...
...They would receive new visas, he told them, when they reached the East German border...
...On January 6 of this year we published "Empty Eyes and Magic Eyes," a selection from an anthology of Russian prose and poetry edited by Field to be issued this month under the title Pages from Tarusa...
...A lawyer who had previously been engaged by the United States was secured by the Embassy to handle the case...
...Only because of a few queries from Western correspondents in Moscow —after Field had already been in jail eight days—did the Department issue a sparse, routine account of his arrest at a regular press briefing...
...Probably the most important question, though, concerns Washington's handling of the Field affair...
...appeared December 24, 1962...
...Unable to read the Polish writing, they could not determine whether the guard was right but explained that they had applied for transit visas valid through February 6. The guard, growing angry, demanded that they leave the train...
...In Washington, there appeared to be a marked unwillingness to link these events in the two Communist capitals...
...Especially in the beginning when they were left with virtually no official guidance, we were also in close contact with Field's parents...
...The offer was refused...
Vol. 47 • February 1964 • No. 4
