Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — In a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday, Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) said he was disappointed in the manner in which President Obama’s decision to revise a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe was communicated to NATO allies, Poland and Czech Republic. Calling the handling of the missile decision a “major public relations and public diplomacy blunder,” Senator Voinovich said that announcing it on September 17, 2009, the day of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, made it even worse.
Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — Displaying unprecedented boldness for a US diplomatic mission, the US Embassy in Warsaw conceded on its official public website that Poles believe that the “insensitive timing” — as the Embassy put it — of the Obama administration announcement on canceling the US missile shield system in Central Europe “shows that Obama does not understand Poland.” In what may be a deliberate US public diplomacy effort to repair the public relations damage in Poland, a news item on the embassy website, posted in both English and Polish, acknowledged that “the timing of Obama’s announcement upset Poland and Polish Americans because it came on Sept. 17, the 70th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II.”
Opinia.US In a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday, Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) said he was disappointed in the manner in which President Obama’s decision to revise a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe was communicated to NATO allies, Poland and Czech Republic. Calling the handling of the missile decision a “major public relations and public diplomacy blunder,” Senator Voinovich said that announcing it on September 17, 2009, the day of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, made it even worse.
History is a harsh mistress when her lessons are neglected; and the world’s free peoples invite and incur her wrath each day this adolescent administration’s ideological fantasy of a ‘grand bargain’ with liberty’s enemies amounts to the fire sale of American security.
Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI)
Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) was one of many American commentators and politicians who noted that President Obama made his controversial announcement on the dismantling of missile defense in Central Europe on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland.
Washington, D.C. – In response to President Obama’s announcement on America’s missile defense program, U.S. Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), has issued the following statement:
Today, on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, President Obama announced that he will abandon the country’s missile defense program, effectively abandoning our strategic relationship with Poland and the Czech Republic.
The Polish Ministry of Defense Spokeswoman said of the move, ‘This is catastrophic for Poland.’ To be clear, this is catastrophic for all free nations.
At best, it signals a pattern of apathy toward our allies and the threats they face. At worst, it is Russian appeasement and accedes to the idea that Central and Eastern European countries belong in Russia’s sphere of influence.
Learning from the Greatest Generation before us, our Global Generation must prevent the policy of appeasement from paving the road to dishonor and disaster. Today, in abandoning missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic—at the very time rogue regimes intensify their quest for weapons of mass destruction and the means to rain them upon millions of innocent people—we witness freedom retreat in a world redolent with threats. Let none, though, feign surprise. The beguiling ignorance of history manifested during the President’s global apology tour foreshadowed a pattern of appeasement; the consequences of which are clear to our allies and our enemies.
President Obama significantly harmed the national security of our Central European allies today and indeed jeopardized the safety of all Americans in an age of increased weapons proliferation.
As former Polish President, Lech Walesa said, “The Americans only cared about their interests. They used everybody else.
History is a harsh mistress when her lessons are neglected; and the world’s free peoples invite and incur her wrath each day this adolescent administration’s ideological fantasy of a ‘grand bargain’ with liberty’s enemies amounts to the fire sale of American security.
The interview with the outgoing US Ambassador to Poland Victor H. Ashe was conducted by a US Embassy Warsaw press attache on September 17, 2009, the day of President Obama’s announcement about discarding the American missile defense system in Poland and Czech Republic. The Polish government saw the missile shield as a major US security guarantee and protection against any future political and military pressure from Russia.
In a public diplomacy disaster for the US, President Obama’s missile shield removal annoucement was made on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 launched under the terms of the Hitler-Stalin Pact. Former Polish president and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa who said “It wasn’t that the shield was that important, but it’s about the way, the way of treating us,” expressed the dismay of many Poles over the historic symbolism of the timing of President Obama’s September 17 announcement.
The failure of the US State Department and the White House to properly appreciate the historical significance of the Soviet invasion anniversary for the Polish people was summed up in the Wired news story headline: “Dear Poland, Happy Soviet Invasion Day, Love Uncle Sam” and in numerous other US and international media news reports and commentaries.
As it is typical for US State Department self-generated public relations interviews, none of the missile defense controversy was mentioned in the video released by the US Embassy in Warsaw. Ambassador Ashe was President George W. Bush’s appointee but was asked by President Obama to stay in his post for several months into the new administration. The Obama White House had firm plans to scrap the missile defense system in Poland and Czech Republic as part of its strategy to improve relations with Russia and to get Moscow’s support for curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Poland, which during the Bush Administration was a strong NATO ally of the US and contributed troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan, was no longer important enough for President Obama to travel to Gdansk for the 70th anniversary observances of the start of World War II. The White House’s original plan to send a former official from a former administration to represent the US at the ceremonies in Poland was viewed by the Poles as a major snub. The White House sent at the last moment the President’s national security advisor, still well below the level of the heads of state and heads of government who came to Poland, including Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
One could say that Ambassador Ashe’s final weeks in Poland ended in a major public diplomacy disaster for the US and a major security policy setback for Poland. However, as a Bush Administration holdover appointee, Ambassador Ashe, a strong supporter of the missile defense shield and an advocate for a close strategic alliance between Poland and the United States, had minimal access to the Obama White House. Apparently he also had a minimal ability to manage even the public relations aspect of US-Polish relations once the new US administration took office. On September 17, U.S. Ambassador Ashe, who will depart Warsaw on September 26 after a five-year tenure, hosted a farewell reception at his Warsaw residence.
President Obama’s Ambassador-Designate to Poland is Lee A. Feinstein who is on leave from the Brookings Institution, where he has been a Visiting Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies. He was National Security Director to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her presidential campaign. Ambassador Victor Ashe congratulated Mr. Feinstein: “President Obama made an excellent choice in announcing his intent to nominate Lee Feinstein as the next U.S. Ambassador to Poland. I know the Embassy and Polish-American relations will be in good hands under his leadership.” If confirmed, Mr. Feinstein will be the 25th U.S. Ambassador to Poland.
The Brookings Institution Visiting Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies and National Security Director to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her presidential campaign should have been already advising the Obama Administration on a host of issues, including the sensitive area of history and trust in US-Polish relations. His statement made to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 15, just two days before President Obama’s ill-timed announcement, shows a certain appreciation of Poland’s history.
“Poland has endured great hardship and tragedy in its history. It has been occupied and dismembered by foreign powers time and again. It experienced a brief period of independence after World War I, but then fell prey to Nazi invasion and occupation, during which six million Polish citizens lost their lives, including three million Jews, most of Poland’s Jewish population. Then, following the war, the Soviet regime deprived Poles of their political liberty and imposed an economic system that kept the country in poverty and subjugation.”
President Obama’s Ambassador-Designate to Poland Lee A. Feinstein, September 15, 2009
Ambassador-Designate Feinstein did not specifically mention the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, but he undoubtedly knew about it, and knew about President Obama’s pending missile shield announcement. He probably also knows that the Poles still remember how the US Administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had betrayed Poland to Russia at the end of World War II. I specifically refer to FDR and his administration, and not the American people who did not want to see Poland being sold to Stalin.
Lee Feinstein should have called the White House to offer friendly advice on Polish history and perhaps quote from another part of his earlier statement: “As Secretary Clinton has said, Poland is ‘one of our closest allies.’ Poland was one of just three countries that entered Iraq with U.S. forces in 2003. It contributes forces for NATO’s KFOR mission in Kosovo. Polish forces have served in Afghanistan since the onset of the NATO mission in 2004.” Ambassador-Designate Feinstein summed up Poland’s special relationship with the US in this way: “In short, intrepid Polish forces stand with us in dangerous places with dangerous missions, and Poland has increased its contributions, which are prodigious.”
Ambassador Victor H. Ashe Biography from the US Embassy Warsaw website ( We’re positing it here since these biographies tend to disappear once an ambassador leaves his post.)
Victor Ashe was nominated by President Bush to be Ambassador to the Republic of Poland on April 8, 2004, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 21, 2004. He was sworn in on June 23, 2004, in Washington, DC. Ambassador Ashe has visited all 16 provinces of Poland three times and over 185 Polish cities and towns since arriving in Poland in July, 2004. Ambassador Ashe is the most senior American bilateral Ambassador serving in Europe today. Ambassador Ashe is the 24th American Ambassador to Poland and is the second longest serving Ambassador. Ambassador Biddle is the longest serving Ambassador. Ambassador Ashe has submitted his resignation as Ambassador to Poland effective September 26, 2009.
Amb. Ashe’s history of public service includes serving 31 years in Tennessee state and city elective offices. In December 2003, Amb. Ashe completed an unprecedented 16 years as Mayor of Knoxville, the longest mayoral tenure in the city’s 218-year history.
Amb. Ashe was born January 1, 1945, in Knoxville, Tennessee and attended public schools there. He graduated from the Hotchkiss School, in Lakeville, Connecticut, in 1963 and from Yale University with a BA in History in 1967. He received his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1974. Ashe is an attorney and licensed to practice law in Tennessee.
In 1965, Mr. Ashe served as an intern in the office of Congressman Bill Brock, where he helped write a tax sharing for education bill. In 1967, he was a staff assistant in the office of then-Senator Howard Baker.
Amb. Ashe was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1968, at age 23. In 1975 he was elected to the State Senate, where he served for nine years. From 1967 to 1973, Amb. Ashe served as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Reserves.
From 1985-1987, under President Reagan, Mr. Ashe served as the Executive Director of the Americans Outdoors Commission chaired by then-Governor (and now U.S. Senator) Lamar Alexander. Mr. Ashe was elected Knoxville’s mayor in November, 1987.
As Mayor of Knoxville, Mr. Ashe established a sister city relationship with Chelm in Poland and led two delegations to the city, one in 1997 and the other in 2000. Mr. Ashe also led a delegation of U.S. mayors to Israel in 1995 and to Uganda in 2003 on HIV/AIDS.
Mr. Ashe improved Knoxville’s financial picture by increasing the fund balance and improving the bond rating for the city. Greenways were substantially increased from 5 to 34 miles when he left office. He led the effort for waterfront development in his city and built a new state-of-the-art convention center to boost tourism. Mr. Ashe established a police civilian review board, and in January 2004 he received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission’s chair award for his work on behalf of improving race relations. He also made historic preservation a theme of his tenure.
Amb. Ashe was awarded on October 14, 2004 the Cornelius Amory Pugsley Medal at the local level. This award, from the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration in association with the National Park Foundation, was given in recognition of his work on parks and greenways while he was Mayor of Knoxville.
In 1995, Mr. Ashe was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He received the Distinguished Public Service Award in 2003. He also served as President of the Tennessee Municipal League. As a leader in both organizations he led a bipartisan effort to curb unfunded federal mandates.
He was appointed by both Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton to the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.
President Clinton nominated Ambassador Ashe to the AmeriCorps Board of Directors and the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment.
Amb. Ashe is married to the former Joan Plumlee and they have two children, J. Victor, 19, and Martha, 16. J. Victor will be a sophomore at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN this fall. Martha will be in 11th grade at Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT. in September, 2009. Mrs. Ashe was an elementary school teacher for 13 years.
Amb. Ashe is an avid hiker. He also enjoys as hobbies traveling and reading history books and mysteries.
Poland has not one but two Pearl Harbor Days in September: the anniversary of the start of World War II with the Nazi German attack on Poland on September 1, 1939 and the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland on September 17, 1939 under the terms of the Hitler-Stalin Pact. Someone at the State Department should have explained the significance of these two dates for Poland to Hawaiian-born US President. There was no good reason for snubbing Poland by sending a minor US official to the anniversary observances in Gdansk on September 1 to stand alongside of the heads of state and Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. President Obama did not have to announce his missile shield decision on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland. Ted Lipien
Update
2009 marks 90 years of diplomatic relations between Poland and the United States. This is the last week of US Ambassador Victor H. Ashe’s tenure in Poland. A holdover President George W. Bush’s appointee, he is scheduled to depart Warsaw permanently on September 26. President Obama’s Ambassador-Designate to Poland is Lee A. Feinstein who is on leave from the Brookings Institution, where he has been a Visiting Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies. He was National Security Director to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her presidential campaign. Ambassador Victor Ashe congratulated Mr. Feinstein: “President Obama made an excellent choice in announcing his intent to nominate Lee Feinstein as the next U.S. Ambassador to Poland. I know the Embassy and Polish-American relations will be in good hands under his leadership.” If confirmed, Mr. Feinstein will be the 25th U.S. Ambassador to Poland.
While American and international media blames President Obama for choosing to announce his decision on the removal of the missile defense system from Poland and Czech Republic on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet attack on Poland on September 17, 1939, surprisingly so far no one has called it a failure of American diplomacy. What makes this failure even more disturbing is that neither the State Department nor the White House has drawn any lessons from an earlier public diplomacy disaster when they gave grave offence by sending to Poland a low-level delegation to participate in the 70th anniversary observances on September 1 of the start of World War II, a date also of great historical significance to the Polish people.
Both missteps were completely avoidable. Why add insult to injury? Why offend even more a loyal US ally in the war on terror who has contributed troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan?
There may be some who think that the Obama White House deliberately snubbed and punished Poland because Warsaw was one of the strongest supporters among NATO members of President Bush’s foreign policy. I don’t think this was the case. President Obama and his closest advisors may be naive and historically challenged, but they would not sacrifice American national interests in such a way. The additional humiliation of Poland was not deliberate. It was unplanned, and much of it was certainly unnecessary and avoidable.
If only one US diplomat, one foreign service officer at the State Department, did his or her job well, some of the international headlines making fun of President Obama’s lack of appreciation of history would not have been written. Where was the US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale, one of President Obama’s appointees? (Photo) Where was the US Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe?
As President Bush’s holdover appointee who is leaving his post in Warsaw this week, Ambassador Ashe would not have much influence with the Obama White House anyway. But where was President Obama’s Ambassador-Designate to Poland Lee A. Feinstein? The Brookings Institution Visiting Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies and National Security Director to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her presidential campaign should have been already advising the Obama Administration on a host of issues, including the sensitive area of history and trust in US-Polish relations. His statement made to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 15, just two days before President Obama’s ill-timed announcement, shows a certain appreciation of Poland’s history.
“Poland has endured great hardship and tragedy in its history. It has been occupied and dismembered by foreign powers time and again. It experienced a brief period of independence after World War I, but then fell prey to Nazi invasion and occupation, during which six million Polish citizens lost their lives, including three million Jews, most of Poland’s Jewish population. Then, following the war, the Soviet regime deprived Poles of their political liberty and imposed an economic system that kept the country in poverty and subjugation.”
President Obama’s Ambassador-Designate to Poland Lee A. Feinstein, September 15, 2009
Ambassador-Designate Feinstein did not specifically mention the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, but he undoubtedly knew about it, and knew about President Obama’s pending missile shield announcement. He probably also knows that the Poles still remember how the US Administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had betrayed Poland to Russia at the end of World War II. I specifically refer to FDR and his administration, and not the American people who did not want to see Poland being sold to Stalin.
Lee Feinstein should have called the White House to offer friendly advice on Polish history and perhaps quote from another part of his earlier statement: “As Secretary Clinton has said, Poland is ‘one of our closest allies.’ Poland was one of just three countries that entered Iraq with U.S. forces in 2003. It contributes forces for NATO’s KFOR mission in Kosovo. Polish forces have served in Afghanistan since the onset of the NATO mission in 2004.” Ambassador-Designate Feinstein summed up Poland’s special relationship with the US in this way: “In short, intrepid Polish forces stand with us in dangerous places with dangerous missions, and Poland has increased its contributions, which are prodigious.”
During World War II, Polish soldiers fought alongside of British and American soldiers against Nazi Germany. Those who understand how the Polish people feel about history and about America are reminded of Ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane who served in Poland from 1945 until 1947 during the Truman Administration, resigned, and wrote a book “I Saw Poland Betrayed.” He described what he saw as the betrayal of Poland by the Western Allies at the end of World War II, with FDR playing a major part in selling out of Poland to Stalin at the Yalta Conference. Fortunately, subsequent administrations and the American people rejected Roosevelt’s naive assessment of Stalin and supported America’s participation in the Cold War until the Soviet Union collapsed and Poland along with other Central European nations became a member of NATO. The people of Poland can take some comfort in knowing that American democracy eventually corrects even some of the gravest mistakes made by US presidents.
Even if President Obama’s ideological preferences pushed him to embrace Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev rather than listen to Lech Walesa and Waclav Havel, who had sent him a letter warning him about Russia’s dangerous slide into authoritarianism and imperial expansion, there was still room for observing basic diplomatic protocol and good manners. At a lower level of US diplomatic corps, where was the PAO (Public Affairs Officer) at the US Embassy in Warsaw and dozens of other foreign service officers, each costing US taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars? Where was the Polish Desk officer at the State Department? Where were all the public diplomacy experts President Obama had promised to bring on board to correct the mistakes of the Bush Administration, whom he accused of dealing harshly with the rest of the world and of not listening to what others were saying?
Well, the Obama Administration is now talking softly to Moscow, Iran, and Cuba. But what about Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and other nations in Central and Eastern Europe which already are or want to be America’s allies? What about the future of independent and democratic Ukraine? Is Ukraine going to become like Russia? Where was in all of this President Obama’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his chief diplomatic advisor? We have also not heard much from Vice President Biden.
Ultimately, the US President is responsible for any foreign policy and public diplomacy disasters, but American diplomats should have managed the process and tried to soften the blow to Poland and other nations in the region. Perhaps they did warn the White House, and their warnings were ignored. This would still qualify as a failure of American diplomacy — the inability of State Department officials to affect something as simple as the timing of a critical announcement and selecting who should represent the United States at an important event abroad.
If warnings were issued to the White House and were disregarded, I hope we will soon find out. Comments from those who may know are welcome. Whatever happened, this will hurt President Obama politically among Polish-American voters and other Americans with roots in Central and Eastern Europe. With headlines like these, this diplomatic fiasco will likely have a negative political impact for the President and his party across the whole spectrum of the American electorate. But while President Obama may eventually pay a political price for the mistakes that were both his and the State Department’s, the damage to America’s reputation and credibility among our true allies abroad will be long-lasting and will not be easily undone.
This op-ed was written by Ted Lipien, president of Free Media Online (FreeMediaOnline.org), a 501(c)3 media nonprofit promoting media freedom worldwide. Republishing is allowed.
Dear Poland, Happy Soviet Invasion Day, Love Uncle Sam
Wired
While American and international media blames President Obama for choosing to announce his decision on the removal of the missile defense system from Poland and Czech Republic on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet attack on Poland on September 17, 1939, surprisingly so far no one has called it a failure of American diplomacy. What makes this failure even more disturbing is that neither the State Department nor the White House has drawn any lessons from an earlier public diplomacy disaster when they gave grave offence by sending to Poland a low-level delegation to participate in the 70th anniversary observances on September 1 of the start of World War II, a date also of great historical significance to the Polish people.
Both missteps were completely avoidable. Why add insult to injury? Why offend even more a loyal US ally in the war on terror who has contributed troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan?
There may be some who think that the Obama White House deliberately snubbed and punished Poland because Warsaw was one of the strongest supporters among NATO members of President Bush’s foreign policy. I don’t think this was the case. President Obama and his closest advisors may be naive and historically challenged, but they would not sacrifice American national interests in such a way. The additional humiliation of Poland was not deliberate. It was unplanned, and much of it was certainly unnecessary and avoidable.
If only one US diplomat, one foreign service officer at the State Department, did his or her job well, some of the international headlines making fun of President Obama’s lack of appreciation of history would not have been written. Where was the US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale, one of President Obama’s appointees? (Photo) Where was the US Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe?
As President Bush’s holdover appointee who is leaving his post in Warsaw this week, Ambassador Ashe would not have much influence with the Obama White House anyway. But where was President Obama’s Ambassador-Designate to Poland Lee A. Feinstein? The Brookings Institution Visiting Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies and National Security Director to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her presidential campaign should have been already advising the Obama Administration on a host of issues, including the sensitive area of history and trust in US-Polish relations. His statement made to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 15, just two days before President Obama’s ill-timed announcement, shows a certain appreciation of Poland’s history.
“Poland has endured great hardship and tragedy in its history. It has been occupied and dismembered by foreign powers time and again. It experienced a brief period of independence after World War I, but then fell prey to Nazi invasion and occupation, during which six million Polish citizens lost their lives, including three million Jews, most of Poland’s Jewish population. Then, following the war, the Soviet regime deprived Poles of their political liberty and imposed an economic system that kept the country in poverty and subjugation.”
President Obama’s Ambassador-Designate to Poland Lee A. Feinstein, September 15, 2009
Ambassador-Designate Feinstein did not specifically mention the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, but he undoubtedly knew about it, and knew about President Obama’s pending missile shield announcement. He probably also knows that the Poles still remember how the US Administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had betrayed Poland to Russia at the end of World War II. I specifically refer to FDR and his administration, and not the American people who did not want to see Poland being sold to Stalin.
Lee Feinstein should have called the White House to offer friendly advice on Polish history and perhaps quote from another part of his earlier statement: “As Secretary Clinton has said, Poland is ‘one of our closest allies.’ Poland was one of just three countries that entered Iraq with U.S. forces in 2003. It contributes forces for NATO’s KFOR mission in Kosovo. Polish forces have served in Afghanistan since the onset of the NATO mission in 2004.” Ambassador-Designate Feinstein summed up Poland’s special relationship with the US in this way: “In short, intrepid Polish forces stand with us in dangerous places with dangerous missions, and Poland has increased its contributions, which are prodigious.”
During World War II, Polish soldiers fought alongside of British and American soldiers against Nazi Germany. Those who understand how the Polish people feel about history and about America are reminded of Ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane who served in Poland from 1945 until 1947 during the Truman Administration, resigned, and wrote a book “I Saw Poland Betrayed.” He described what he saw as the betrayal of Poland by the Western Allies at the end of World War II, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt playing a major part in selling out of Poland to Stalin at the Yalta Conference. Fortunately, subsequent administrations and the American people rejected Roosevelt’s naive assessment of Stalin and supported America’s participation in the Cold War until the Soviet Union collapsed and Poland along with other Central European nations became a member of NATO. The people of Poland can take some comfort in knowing that American democracy eventually corrects even some of the gravest mistakes made by US presidents.
Even if President Obama’s ideological preferences pushed him to embrace Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev rather than listen to Lech Walesa and Waclav Havel, who had sent him a letter warning him about Russia’s dangerous slide into authoritarianism and imperial expansion, there was still room for observing basic diplomatic protocol and good manners. At a lower level of US diplomatic corps, where was the PAO (Public Affairs Officer) at the US Embassy in Warsaw and dozens of other foreign service officers, each costing US taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars? Where was the Polish Desk officer at the State Department? Where were all the public diplomacy experts President Obama had promised to bring on board to correct the mistakes of the Bush Administration, whom he accused of dealing harshly with the rest of the world and of not listening to what others were saying?
Well, the Obama Administration is now talking softly to Moscow, Iran, and Cuba. But what about Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and other nations in Central and Eastern Europe which already are or want to be America’s allies? What about the future of independent and democratic Ukraine? Is Ukraine going to become like Russia? Where was in all of this President Obama’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his chief diplomatic advisor? We have also not heard much from Vice President Biden.
Ultimately, the US President is responsible for any foreign policy and public diplomacy disasters, but American diplomats should have managed the process and tried to soften the blow to Poland and other nations in the region. Perhaps they did warn the White House, and their warnings were ignored. This would still qualify as a failure of American diplomacy — the inability of State Department officials to affect something as simple as the timing of a critical announcement and selecting who should represent the United States at an important event abroad.
If warnings were issued to the White House and were disregarded, I hope we will soon find out. Comments from those who may know are welcome. Whatever happened, this will hurt President Obama politically among Polish-American voters and other Americans with roots in Central and Eastern Europe. With headlines like these, this diplomatic fiasco will likely have a negative political impact for the President and his party across the whole spectrum of the American electorate. But while President Obama may eventually pay a political price for the mistakes that were both his and the State Department’s, the damage to America’s reputation and credibility among our true allies abroad will be long-lasting and will not be easily undone.
This op-ed was written by Ted Lipien, president of Free Media Online (FreeMediaOnline.org), a 501(c)3 media nonprofit promoting media freedom worldwide. Republishing is allowed.
President Obama’s announcement on September 17 that the US is shelving its plans to build a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Central Europe is likely to raise painful historical memories in Poland.
By making the announcement on September 17 about abandoning ballistic missile defense plans for Poland and Czech Republic, the Obama White House chose a date with painful historical significance for the Poles. Under the terms of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland 70 years ago, on September 17, 1939, while western and central parts of Poland were being overrun by German armies.
Russia has fought hard to keep American missiles away from its borders, and President Obama’s decision is seen as a concession to Moscow in return for Russian support in curbing Iran’s nuclear program. The Poles, always fearful of the Kremlin’s imperial reach, are more likely to see it as a betrayal of their country, a faithful NATO ally of the US, just as Poland, whose soldiers fought alongside Americans against Nazi Germany, was betrayed by America at the end of World War II.
President Barack Obama bids farewell to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev backstage after the two spoke at the Parallel Business Summit at the Manezh Exhibition Hall in Moscow, Russia, July 7, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
The Stratfor global intelligence website reported that a U.S. concession to Moscow on BMD would be one of the first major steps in a Russian-U.S. deal — one which could see Iran’s greatest foreign backer flip sides. But President Obama’s “flip” on the Bush Administration’s BMD deal with Poland reminds the Poles of another popular and progressive US president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who made a deal with Stalin in Yalta to get Moscow’s military support against Japan. Poland and the rest of Central and Eastern Europe paid for FDR’s deal at Yalta with decades of Soviet domination.
These may be completely different times and different political stakes, but the Obama Administration has already demonstrated its lack of historical sensitivity and public diplomacy strategy when it refused Poland’s invitation to send a high level representative to the official observances in Gdansk of the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. Prime Minister Putin was there and even made sort of an apology for the Hitler-Stalin Pact while trying to deny Stalin’s responsibility for helping Hitler to start World War II.
The Poles are proud and they think in historical terms. While listening to Putin’s dubious historical analysis delivered in Gdansk, they were reminded of being snubbed by their American ally. The latest decision on missile defense may turn out to be a new public diplomacy disaster for President Obama.
Poland, one of America’s staunchest allies in the war on terror, saw the presence of US missiles as a protection of its security and sovereignty against a possible threat from Russia. Former Polish President and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa along with former Czech President Vaclav Havel and dozens of other prominent Central European political leaders and intellectuals sent an open letter to President Obama warning him of Russia’s continued threat to the region. The letter was not well received by the Obama Administration.
As for historical lessons, FDR’s deal with Stalin not did not get much for the US. It allowed the Soviet Union to occupy Central and Eastern Europe and brought about the Cold War. America paid for Yalta with wars in Korea and Vietnam and in billions of dollars in defense spending.
President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top administration officials have been silent in recent months as Russian leaders and the Kremlin controlled media launched a campaign to rehabilitate Stalin’s aggressive and genocidal policies. The Poles, on the other hand, reacted to Moscow’s rewriting of Soviet history with great alarm.
People in the Obama White House may think there are no historical lessons to be drawn from their decision to scrap the missile defense system in Poland and Czech Republic, but any experienced public diplomacy expert would have told them that Central Europeans still remember World War II, Yalta, and the Cold War. At the very least, President Obama could have waited a day or two so that his missile defense announcement would not have been made on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet attack on Poland.
Stratfor global intelligence analysis website reports that “rumors are flying late Sept. 16 that the United States could be shelving its plans to build a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Poland and Czech Republic. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reportedly will hold a news conference on the issue sometime Sept. 17 or Sept. 18, and U.S. security officials are apparently in Poland briefing Warsaw on the development.”
If these reports are accurate and indeed the announcement is made on September 17, the date might have a historical significance that the Obama White House may have not intended. 70 years ago the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on September 17, 1939 under the terms of the Hitler-Stalin Pact while western and central parts of Poland were being overrun by German armies.
Stratfor reports that “a U.S. concession on BMD would be one of the first major steps in a Russian-U.S. deal — one which could see Iran’s greatest foreign backer flip sides.”
President Obama’s “flip” on the Bush Administration’s BMD deal with Poland might remind the Poles of another popular and progressive US president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who made a deal with Stalin in Yalta at the end of World War II to get Moscow’s military support against Japan. Poland and the rest of Central and Eastern Europe paid for that deal with decades of Soviet domination.
These may be completely different times and different political stakes, but the Obama Administration has already demonstrated its lack of historical sensitivity and public diplomacy strategy when it refused Poland’s invitation to send a high level representative to the official observances in Gdansk of the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. Prime Minister Putin was there and even made sort of an apology for the Hitler-Stalin Pact.
The Poles are proud and they think in historical terms. This may turn out to be a new public diplomacy disaster for President Obama.
Opinia.US SAN FRANCISCO — In a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday, Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) said he was disappointed in the manner in which President Obama’s decision to revise a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe was communicated to NATO allies, Poland and Czech Republic. Calling the handling of the missile decision a “major public relations and public diplomacy blunder,” Senator Voinovich said that announcing it on September 17, 2009, the day of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland, made it even worse.
President Obama’s Ambassador-Designate to Poland is Lee A. Feinstein who is on leave from the Brookings Institution, where he has been a Visiting Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies. He was National Security Director to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her presidential campaign. Ambassador Victor Ashe congratulated Mr. Feinstein: “President Obama made an excellent choice in announcing his intent to nominate Lee Feinstein as the next U.S. Ambassador to Poland. I know the Embassy and Polish-American relations will be in good hands under his leadership.” If confirmed, Mr. Feinstein will be the 25th U.S. Ambassador to Poland.
If only one US diplomat, one foreign service officer at the State Department, did his or her job well, some of the international headlines making fun of President Obama’s lack of appreciation of history would not have been written. Where was the US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs 
Even if President Obama’s ideological preferences pushed him to embrace Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev rather than listen to Lech Walesa and Waclav Havel, who had sent him a 
If warnings were issued to the White House and were disregarded, I hope we will soon find out. Comments from those who may know are welcome. Whatever happened, this will hurt President Obama politically among Polish-American voters and other Americans with roots in Central and Eastern Europe. With headlines like these, this diplomatic fiasco will likely have a negative political impact for the President and his party across the whole spectrum of the American electorate. But while President Obama may eventually pay a political price for the mistakes that were both his and the State Department’s, the damage to America’s reputation and credibility among our true allies abroad will be long-lasting and will not be easily undone.
Opinia.US
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