| In Revolutions in 1989, Poland was the first country to witness the transfer of power to non-Communist government, triggering a domino effect in Eastern Europe. Polish evolution was followed by Warsaw Pact countries like East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and so on, and eventually the Soviet Union collapsed, ending the nearly-half-century-long Cold War. Some people hold the view that it was due to American policy, especially the tough policy during Reagan Administration that Polish evolution happened; some of them even go so far to say that Polish people would not have their democratic revolution without the United States. Some other people totally overlook the role of Reagan Administration, arguing that the reason of Polish evolution was to be found from within the Soviet bloc that Soviet Union itself was struggling at that time because the fighting of the Cold War against the United States had drained too much of its resources, thus gradually losing its control over Poland, and Gorbachev was pro reform, giving more autonomy to the Polish United Workers Party leaders. However, after intensively reading and carefully analyzing materials available, this paper holds that both the two opinions above are one-sided and Reagan Administration actually accelerated Polish peaceful evolution.Before the declaration of martial law, to ensure progress and peace in Poland, Reagan administration offered economic assistance to reward Polish government for its allowing liberalizing trends to continue on the one hand. And it repeatedly warned of serious consequences if force should be used on Polish people by the USSR on the other hand. After the martial law, Reagan administration adopted the two-track policy. It utilized economic means as leverage to pressure Polish government to make political compromise and at the same time applied covert operation strategy to support the Opposition, providing Solidarity with large amount of money, goods and materials. |
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