Word: piasecki
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...headquarters in Warsaw in 1944, he realized that the NKVD was for the first time operating in a country with a Catholic majority. He favored a gradual undermining of the Church's position rather than a direct frontal attack, picked a Polish political adventurer named Boleslaw Piasecki to lead a group of "progressive," i.e., proCommunist, Catholics. Piasecki had learned the tricks of his trade as an agent for Mussolini and later for the Gestapo, had organized shock troops to liquidate Red partisans in Poland. Picked up by the NKVD, he saved his neck by betraying his former pals...
...Under Piasecki's direction, and with the aid of lavish government subsidies, PAX blossomed into a sprawling industrial and propaganda complex. It published magazines and books, controlled factories producing everything from shoes to metal goods, ran its own motor pool, its own high school and hospitals. It also had a lucrative monopoly of the sale of devotional items and religious literature in Poland...
...vast resources, PAX never budged the vast majority of Polish Catholics. Audiences listened skeptically when high-living Director Piasecki tried to explain why it was "necessary" for Poland's Red regime to jail Catholic bishops or liquidate Catholic charities. Many unsuspecting priests were arrested after their frank conversations were recorded by PAX men wearing concealed microphones; then Piasecki would offer to help free them in return for "cooperation." Only a handful accepted, and not a single renegade bishop could be found...
...Rise. With Berlin piloting, the company gained altitude fast. Earnings climbed 47% in 1953 to $1,410,345, and though sales dropped 44% the following year, profits fell only 4%, held at a satisfactory $1,360,241. Frank Piasecki's 20-passenger H21 Workhorse swept helicopter honors for speed and altitude at the 1953 Dayton Air Show, and Piasecki ranked as the No. 1 manufacturer of big transport helicopters. But inside the executive suite raged a struggle for control: Piasecki men v. Rockefeller men. In March 1955 Frank Piasecki lost even the board chairmanship to President Berlin. Four months...
...Fall. Piasecki and associates still owned 23.7% of the 471,391 shares of outstanding common stock, and in an attempt at a comeback, began soliciting proxies for last week's annual meeting. Once again, they were rebuffed. The company, Berlin reported, was doing better than ever: 1955 peak profits of $1,550,937, a husky backlog of nearly $150 million, first-quarter sales well ahead of '55. Piasecki tried to raise points of order and ask questions, but got nowhere. He attempted to increase his bloc's directorships from three to five on the 13-man board...