We revisited the Cold War during a recent trip to Poland.
We’d not been to Poland before and were curious to see a land geographically so vulnerable to its neighbors.
Before we left, I read Poland by James Michener, The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric Kelley and Searching for Schindler: A Memoir by Thomas Keneally
(about writing the book; fascinating).
My husband, however, watched a few movies.
Jack Strong
A retired naval officer, my husband specifically wanted to see what Poland looked like post-World War II.
Many Holocaust-related movies are available including Schindler’s List, but he wanted to know about the Pole’s more recent experiences.
A search brought him to the film Jack Strong, which surprised him and reminded us of our lives during the Cold War.
A 2014 Polish film directed by Władysław Pasikowski, Jack Strong describes the experiences of Polish Army Colonel Ryszard Kukliński.
The Deadline website describes it as such:
“It’s based on the true story of Colonel Ryszard Kukliński, a high-ranking officer in the Polish army. Privy to the most classified operations of the Warsaw Pact, he become a CIA asset and from 1971 to 1981, Kukliński provided the West with over 40,000 pages of classified documents.”
The film includes many finger-biting scenes.
Some of the facts Kukliński provided, however, shocked my husband. He encountered them during his military career, in military settings.
“That information came from this man?” my husband asked. He didn’t know until this movie why President Reagan ordered the military to take several unusual steps.
(Including one, frankly, that left me incredulous at the time).
The former United States National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzeziński described Kukliński as “the first Polish officer in NATO.”
Poland is still a pro-Western country. Maybe that’s why my husband wore a USS Honolulu (SSN-718) ball camp on our vacation?
John Paul II
This is where John Paul II stayed when visiting Krakow.
I’d forgotten one of the heroes of the Cold War, Pope John Paul II, came from Krakow.
(Indeed, we landed at the Pope John Paul II airport!)
An overview of Polish history at the Krakow Cloth Hall’s Underground Museum, sobered us and made me feel so very sad.
The grim 19th and 20th centuries, in particular, describing terrible suffering.
But there at the end, light dawned and John Paul II was born.
I thanked God for that one ray of goodness in a place so overrun by conquerors.
Seeing John Paul II’s picture and references to him throughout Krakow reminded me of something I did for Poland.
Light a Candle for Poland
On December 23, 1981, President Ronald Reagan appeared on television and asked Americans to join the Polish people in solidarity.
“For a thousand years,” he told Americans, “Christmas has been celebrated in Poland, a land of deep religious faith, but this Christmas brings little joy to the courageous Polish people.
They have been betrayed by their own government.”
He made an extraordinary gesture: The president asked Americans that Christmas season to light a candle in support of freedom in Poland.
I watched that speech and on a cold Connecticut night, I lit a white candle and set it in our window.
No one saw it but me, the rest of my family slept, but I said a prayer that night for the very people walking past me in Krakow.
Oswald Chambers likes to say that “prayer is the greater work.”
A Poland free of the Warsaw Pact shadow is the result of many prayers.
Our post-Cold War daughter
My husband and I traveled with our 25 year-old daughter, born after the end of the Cold War.
The Colonel’s Polish army ID.
While familiar with the Cold War, she asked many questions as we confronted history that took place in our lifetime.
Typing this now, I guess I could say we had a hand in that Cold War’s end.
Astonishing.
Thanks be to God, really, and the spirit of the Polish people.
Do you have any memories of Poland during the Cold War?
Tweetables
A writer and a naval officer confront their Cold War history while visiting Krakow, Poland. Click to Tweet
The Cold War, Poland and me. Click to Tweet
Recognizing personal Cold War history in Poland. Click to Tweet
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