Dispatch #16

Lech Wałęsa, obviously not a reader of this blog, received Mitt Romney last week in Poland and endorsed him for president, wishing him success, success, hoping for his success. Reading later on the Polskieradio website, I believe I noticed that the current leaders of Solidarność, admonished Wałęsa for taking sides with a candidate who has no particular attractions to unions and the working (hu)man generally. Truly, though, Lech Wałęsa and Solidarność are not what they used to be. Mitt’s laying a wreath in Gdansk won’t capture the Polish vote—not this one anyway—any more than those votes are already captured. A Romney aide’s cursing out the press, telling them to “Kiss my ass,” has gotten as much attention as Wałęsa’s endorsement.

Poles, understandably, give way too much credit to Republicans and to Ronald Reagan for bringing down the Soviet Union, which was crumbling under its own weight. Americans themselves give way too much credit to Reagan, and far too little to Poles, Solidarity, Wałęsa, and the Catholic Church, Cardinal Wyszynski and the Pope. And neither Americans nor Poles gives enough credit to Gorbachev, who was probably trying to do the herculean impossible. Poles might be happy to hear Romney declare Russia our main enemy, but it’s not true for two important reasons.

In the first place, thinking in terms of “rivals” or “adversaries” as opposed to “enemies” is probably the more prudent course. We are long past  the post-Cold War. Second, our new main national “adversary” is so obviously China that Romney’s declaration is at best a political feint to distinguish his foreign policy from Obama’s, a tactical geo-political fiction. At worst, it is a blunder. As a lie, it would be dangerous to the U.S. if Romney came to believe it and we him, and even more dangerous if Poles believed it. Unlike the United States, Putin’s Russia may actually be Poland’s chief “adversary,” in which case, Poles would do well to remember that their most vocal champions—Napoleon, Great Britain/Churchill, and the U.S./FDR—fell considerably short of their words and promises. Alas, Yalta.  The Rzeczpospolita’s best and most reliable ally may be Pussy Riot.