I Saw Poland Betrayed: An American Ambassador Reports to the People

368 Pages·1948·28.67 MB·English

by  Arthur Bliss Lane

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SAW POLAND BETRAYED
I
Carble
ARTHUR BLISS LANE
/Saw Poland Betrayed
AN AMERICAN AMBASSADOR
REPORTS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
by ARTHUR BLISS LANE
UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO POLAND, 1944-1947
"They enslave—their children's children who make compromise
with sin.” James Russbll Lowell, "The Piesent Crisis"
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
Publishers
INDIANAPOLIS NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1948, BY ARTHUR BLISS LANE
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FirstEdition
To the Memory
of Peggy

Foreword
Immediatelyfollowing theelections ofJanuary 19, 1947, inPoland,
I determined to resign my position as American Ambassador. My
—
mission to ensure that "free and unfettered elections" should be
—
held had been a failure. To remain in Warsaw would be inter-
preted as tacit acquiescence in the fraudulent methods employed in
the elections.
Furthermore,I feltstrongly thatthe factswhichhadbroughtabout
the tragedy of the Polish situation should be placed publicly on the
record. Thiscouldnotbe donesolongasIremained anofficialofthe
United States Government; for the factswould indicate not only the
intellectual dishonestyoftheSovietandPolishGovernments,but also
thegrievouserrorswhichourowngovernmenthadmadeinfollowing
a policy of appeasement in its dealings with Stalin. My resignation
wasaccepted, totakeeffectonMarch31, 1947,withtheunderstanding
ofPresidentTrumanandoftheActingSecretaryofState (DeanAche-
soli) that Iwould tell the story as I had seen it.
TheDepartmentofStatekindlyallowedme torefreshmymemory
on the happenings during myAmbassadorship by putting at my dis-
posalthepertinentdocumentsdealingwiththatperiod. Buttheviews
expressedin this volume are solely my own and are in nowise to be
interpreted as those of the United States Government, with which I
am no longer connected.
IfIhaveseemedtomakeexcessiveuseofthefirstpersonalpronoun
— —
in thisvolume aswell as inits title it isbecause I have wished to
emphasize that this is a first-hand and personal account of what I
have seen and experienced: the consecutive steps in the formation
of a puppetpolice state.
Where I have not given the names of informants still resident in