Presidential travel to Poland rich in history, drama, meaning

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The White House announcement that President Joe Biden will go to Poland next week brought back vivid memories of other presidential visits I witnessed there as a member of the U.S. Embassy staff in Warsaw. The trips all had a full ration of high drama and low comedy, as likely will Biden's.

It was late on a cold night when President Jimmy Carter landed at Warsaw's airport on Dec. 29, 1977. His State Department-supplied interpreter, who wasn't accustomed to Carter's southern drawl and had a less than perfect command of Polish, made some obvious translation errors, including quoting the president as lusting after Poland in his heart. That became the story for the first night, not the crucial talks with Poland's communist leaders.

Over the next two days, in formal meetings, symbolic gestures and the first news conference by an American president in a communist country, Carter got his points across. He was there to encourage dissidents struggling for greater freedom and to lean on communist officials to lighten restrictions. Poland's need for continuing U.S. agricultural credits to buttress a faltering economy gave him leverage.

No major breakthroughs were announced, but it felt like momentum had shifted in a more hopeful direction. In fact, significant change did soon come, with the election of the Polish pope less than a year later, John Paul II's triumphant first visit home as pontiff in 1979, and the rise of the free trade union/political movement, "Solidarity," the year after that.

None of us in the embassy was looking that far ahead when Air Force One took off on New Year's Eve morning. Before leaving, Rosalynn and President Carter graciously met with the embassy community, thanking everyone for their work on the visit and service in a beleaguered Iron Curtain outpost. At a wheels-up party that night, we watched "Annie Hall" and toasted the success of the visit.

Speaking to the Sejm, Poland's lower house of Parliament, Clinton declared there was still work to be done, reforms to be made, but membership was a question of "not if, but when." Establish civilian control of the military, a free press and an independent judiciary, and you'll get what you want, he told Walesa and other Polish officials.

Warsaw met the challenge by making all the demanded reforms. As Clinton prepared to return to Poland three years later, Poles wondered whether he would deliver on his part of the bargain. He did. In the president's bag as he arrived in Warsaw in July 1997 was indeed an invitation for Poland to join, along with Hungary and the Czech Republic, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The president broke the news to a huge crowd gathered in front of Warsaw's Royal Castle, a historic building rebuilt brick by brick after its destruction by the Nazis during World War II. As he spoke, a nearby church bell began to peal; turning toward the church, Clinton ad-libbed: and thank you!

His Polish audience embraced the American president and his news that Poland would have allies in fending off any future Russian aggression. A country so often invaded over the centuries would now have the backing of the most successful political-military alliance the world has ever known.

The security threat posed by Russia, which was an underlying theme for all those earlier presidential visits, will again be on the agenda when President Biden lands in Poland next week. This time it takes the form of war in neighboring Ukraine. Biden will assuredly thank Poland for its stalwart support of its neighbor and pledge continuing solidarity with both countries. He will likely also warn Moscow to back off, stay within its own borders and allow the people of other countries to live in peace.