Edward L. Rowny
U. S. Poland Action Commission
Early in 1992 Zbigniew Brzezinski asked me to join a group called the U. S.
Poland Action Commission. He wanted me to undertake the military aspects of
political-military advice which the commission would give to the Polish
government. I agreed and chaired a panel of government and private experts which
drew up three recommendations for the Polish military to follow. The first was
that the Polish Minister of Defense should transform his entirely military staff into
a predominantly civilian one. The second was that the Polish military should offer
to contribute forces to U.N. peacekeeping efforts, such as in the former
Yugoslavia. The third was that the Polish military should increase its contacts and
improve its relationship with NATO.
When we presented the report to the Polish government in mid-November, 1992,
the Polish officials accepted the first two of our recommendations. But instead of
accepting our recommendation that the Poles increase their contacts with NATO,
they said that they would like Poland to be granted early membership into NATO.
I tried to explain as diplomatically as I could that full membership of Poland into
NATO was simply not in the cards for some time to come.
Receiving a Polish Flag from the Polish Government
At a banquet following the U. S. Poland Action Commission meetings, I received
a pleasant surprised. President Walesa's personal representative presented me with
the Polish flag that had draped Paderewski's coffin. I said that I was honored and
flattered, but that the flag should go to Paderewski's next of kin. His reply was:
"The Polish government wishes to give the flag to you, but what you do with it is
your affair. * Accordingly, I presented the flag to Clarence Paderewski, Ignacy's
second cousin, at a ceremony in St Stanislaus Kostka church in Chicago on May
23, 1993. He in turn presented the flag to the Polish American Museum in
Chicago.
Project for the Atlantic Council on Ukraine
In January 1993 General Goodpaster, cochairman of the Atlantic Council, invited
me to lunch to discuss United States' relations with Ukraine. He said he was
impressed by my work on the U.S. Poland Action Commission and felt that a
similar effort should be undertaken on Ukraine. He said, and I agreed, that it was
in the United States' interest to improve its relations with the new independent state
of Ukraine.
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