Word: polished
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Poland, the most populous of the Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe and the birthplace of John Paul II. Both the Pope and the President were convinced that Poland could be broken out of the Soviet orbit if the Vatican and the U.S. committed their resources to destabilizing the Polish government and keeping the outlawed Solidarity movement alive after the declaration of martial...
...Solidarity received strategic advice -- often conveyed by priests or American and European labor experts working undercover in Poland -- that reflected the thinking of the Vatican and the Reagan Administration. As the effectiveness of the resistance grew, the stream of information to the West about the internal decisions of the Polish government and the contents of Warsaw's communications with Moscow became a flood. The details came not only from priests but also from spies within the Polish government...
...officials were never aware of the extent of clandestine U.S. assistance, or the Administration's reliance on the church for guidance regarding how hard to push Polish and Soviet authorities. Casey was wary of "contaminating" the American and European labor movements by giving them too many details of the Administration's efforts. And indeed this was not strictly a CIA operation. Rather, it was a blend of covert and overt, public policy and secret alliances. Casey recognized that in many instances the AFL- CIO was more imaginative than his own operatives in providing organizational assistance to Solidarity and smuggling equipment...
What, then, would a Polish pessimist predict? About what is expected by gloomy counterparts in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the other Soviet satellites that broke free of communism in 1989. Standards of living will drop so low and for so long that the populace may rebel, not just against capitalism and free- market economics but against democracy as well. Possible result: the accession to power of "the man on the horse" -- a dictator...
...survey which of six leaders governed Poland best, "none of the above" came in first with 28%, followed by "no answer" with 18%. Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Poland's first noncommunist Prime Minister, was the leading human at 14%; Lech Walesa, the current President and long considered the dominant figure in Polish politics, drew only 8%, coming in sixth behind Wojciech Jaruzelski, the last communist leader. Many fear that a succession of weak, short-lived governments pursuing inconsistent economic policies could open the way for a populist demagogue and even an authoritarian revival...