Word: lech
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Lech Walesa, founder of Poland's Solidarity movement, turned down Harvard University's invitation to address its graduates out of fear that the Warsaw government would not allow him to return home. President Derek Bok read portions of Walesa's speech, which had been delivered to the U.S. embassy in Warsaw and sent on to Harvard. "Almost daily I receive letters from unknown friends in your country, cards with wishes and expressions of good cheer. I have pondered what could link people living in such different political and social systems and so far from each other. What...
...plan had been unveiled that very day: Lech Walesa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity labor union, had accepted an invitation to speak at Harvard's 332nd Commencement exercises. The University had received a formal letter of acceptance from Walesa in March, administrators said, and they had confirmed his intentions through secret conversations with a journalist who had been in touch with Walesa...
Harvard planners announced the news with pride and fanfare. "As the leader of and spokesman for millions of working men and women in Poland, Lech Walesa has demonstrated extraordinary vision and courage," stated David A. Aloian '49, executive director of the Harvard Alumni Association, on whose behalf Walesa was formally invited. "The message he will bring to Harvard will undoubtedly be timely, important and of interest to the University community and people around the world...
...there was one notable exception to Brantley's statement, and it provides an extraordinary footnote to the story of Harvard's brief dalliance with Lech Walesa. In its issue of May 6, the Polish Communist Party newspaper Trybuna Ludu printed this piece of commentary...
Harvard received yesterday the text of a speech from Polish labor leader Lech Walesa, and President Bok will read excerpts from it at this afternoon's Commencement ceremonies...