Nixon in Warsaw.

AuthorRichmond, Yale
PositionRichard M. Nixon

Much has been made of Richard M. Nixon's 1972 visit to China, a visit that ended 20 years of a frosty relationship, opened a new era in U.S.-China relations, and even produced an opera based on the visit. But few today recall Nixon's 1959 visit to Warsaw and the impact it had, not only in Poland but in other East European countries that were then rightly called Soviet satellites.

Nixon arrived in Warsaw on August 2 for a stopover on his way home from a successful ten-day visit to the Soviet Union where he had opened a huge U.S. national exhibition and had lengthy and frank talks with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev on U.S.-Soviet differences. But although Poland's government was also communist, the country was very different from the Soviet Union. Poland's people were Roman Catholic; they disliked the Russians, and were solidly opposed to communism. Moreover, the country had cultural links with the West going back more than a thousand years, as well as historic ties with the United States. A revolution in 1956 had replaced a Stalinist government with one of national communism which permitted private agriculture, ceased overt harassment of the Catholic Church, and restored academic freedom. Although still a member of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact and subservient to Moscow in many respects, the new Polish government sought closer relations with the West, and with the United States in particular.

Fearing a public manifestation of friendship for America, the Polish government was apprehensive about the Nixon visit, and to control the anticipated crowds and provide additional security; his plane was scheduled to arrive, not at Warsaw's main airport, but at a military field outside the city. Moreover, Nixon's route into the city was not announced, and the roads were not festooned with flags, as was customary for high-level visitors from abroad. But the route had been announced by Polish-language broadcasts of Radio Free Europe and, as a result, more than 100,000 Poles turned out on their own initiative to greet the U.S. Vice President, the first high-level Western official to visit communist Eastern Europe.

At the airport, the arrival ceremonies were correct but subdued; Nixon was given appropriate honors, including greetings by Polish government officials and review of an elite military honor guard. Welcoming Nixon was Oscar Lange who, as Vice Chairman of the Polish Council of State, had a rank equivalent to the U. S. Vice President. The...

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