Ronald Reagan's memorial unveiled in front of US Embassy in Warsaw

photo - PAP/Andrzej Hrechorowicz

The former Solidarity leader said that “as a participant in these events,” it was “inconceivable” that such changes would have come about without the last American president during the post-1945 cold-war era.

Walesa added that thirty years ago, it seemed that the fall of the communist system would not be possible without a nuclear war.

The bronze statue of Reagan has been installed not far from the American Embassy, on Ujazdowskie Avenue, one of the capital's most picturesque thoroughfares.

A statement from President Barack Obama was read out to the guests attending the ceremony, which said that: “The location of this monument is a fitting reminder of the close ties between the American and Polish people, and a tribute to the strong support the United States gave Poland during its long struggle to free itself from communist rule”.

The three-metre high monument, designed by sculptor Wlaydyslaw Dudek, depicts Reagen nicknamed ‘the Gipper’ making his famed 1987 speech at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

During the Berlin address Reagan called on his Russian counterpart, President Gorbachev, to “tear down this wall.”

A letter was also read from Nancy Reagan. “I am touched by today’s ceremony in Warsaw to recognize his accomplishments,” Reagan’s widow writes.

“My husband always felt a strong bond with the people of Poland who longed for freedom. I remember the Christmas in 1981 [after martial law had been declared] when we placed candles in our White House windows, in honour of Solidarity, as [Reagan] was determined that America would do everything it could to advance liberty,” she writes.

Although the statue was created as a result of a private initiative by a group of Polish businessmen, today's ceremony was attended by a number of state dignitaries.

Poland's foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski was joined by US Ambassador to Poland Lee A. Feinstein, as well Mayor of Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz.

Three American senators also flew to Poland for the event. (pg/nh)

The monument has been situated vis-a-vis the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw and will always remind us, the Polish people, of the best of America. However, Lech Walesa who unveils memorials to Ronald Reagan refuses to commemorate his own president Lech Kaczynski who was killed in a plane crash in Russia in 2010.

"The only significant (good) thing that Lech Kaczynski did to Poland was that he died.", said Lech Walesa in a TV interview which can be seen on YouTube in the Polish language. This made that half of the Polish people, the part who votes for conservatives, just hate that man for his cynisism and untold primitive contempt for the man, we, the conservatives, deem to be a national hero.

Therefore, while the need to commemorate The Gipper is as obvious for the Poles as the Sun in the sky, still, the man who unveiled this monument, imho, should not have been there in that place at that time.

"Hanna Beata Gronkiewicz-Waltz (Polish pronunciation: [ˈxanna ɡrɔnˈkʲevʲit͡ʂ ˈvalt͡s], born 4 November 1952 in Warsaw) is a Polish liberal-conservative politician who has been the Mayor of Warsaw since 2 December 2006. She is the first woman to ever hold this position."

A Polish liberal-conservative?

I suspected as much with the hyphenated name.

I hope the liberals stay the hell out of Poland!

"Liberal" in the European sense of being for limited government and free markets.

"Conservative" in the European sense of favoring traditional moral values and continuity.

Poland is a rarity in Europe: the liberal-conservatives and the right-wingers are the number one and number two parties with the socialists/excommunists further behind.

“liberal”, in the sense we Poles use it, means pro fiscal freedom. Conservative, used together with liberal, means that a person is pro capitalistic with pro low taxes option. Liberal conservative does not actually say about his/her viewpoints on religion, God, etc, so it can also embrace the right wing of the US Democratic Party or the RINOs.

The social conservatives, on the other hand, are those, whose main imperative is based on Ten Commandments, both in economy and in the social live. So, just like in the Holy Bible, taxes should be at the level of 1/10 of income and the main economical goal of the Conservatives is to build the economy system based on it, or at least to do the best to get closer to that model, as close as possible.
As to social matters - no abortion, no euthanasia, no etc. homosexual marriages, etc. Family, a union between a man and a woman, is absolutely A.No1, protected and supported by the whole power of the state, etc. etc. etc.
They, like HG Waltz and her party, don't give a da*n for that, while to us, this is as basic and simple as ABC. No compromises.

I miss President Reagan. I am old enough to remember how horrible Carter was and he made us feel ashamed to be Americans and if I remember right, Carter remarked that it would be beneficial to us that our standard of living goes down !

And the current W.H. occupant goes and travels the world and badmouths this country now, more direct that what Carter did. And zero calls us American’s lazy. Maybe we don’t want to work hard since we get punished with more taxes !

“tear down this wall.”

***************

In Peggy Noonan’s book “What I saw at the Revolution” (or something) she talks quite a bit about that speech. Reagan added that line in. Then the speech gets passed around to the various Departments (State, etc.) for their revisions, then to the speechwriters, etc. Each time that line was taken out - too controversial, etc.

Interestingly, anything said in a President’s speech is then considered “policy”. Hence all the various departments weighing in on it.

After adding that line back in for 4 or 5 times, Reagan finally accepted the speech without the line in it - much to the relief of the writers and policy makers with all of the ramifications something like that would mean. The final version was given to Reagan at the last minute - IIRC in the limo on the way to the speech.

He penciled in the “tear down this wall” part back in!

Thank God for Ronald Reagan.

I'm a Pole and I live in Poland so far. As to my memories of the 80s, I can say the commies were scared of that man like hell. At least that was the only thing the commies were right. In 1989, trampled into the ground by Solidarity and economically devastated by America, communists gave their power away without a single shot, let alone nuclear shots. All that tremendous power of the Soviet empire of evil crushed by Solidarity from the inside and America from the outside and secured by John Paul II’s prayers. This will never be forgotten, both by us who love the USA, and by commies who were so much humiliated by The Gipper and hate America till the present day.

America saved and liberated hundreds of millions of people from the Marxist nightmare and you should be always proud of it. O’bambo is merely like a tempest - dark, fearful with rumbles of thunders and tears of uncertainty while it is happening. However, after that there's always a new day dawning, night is over, sunlight appears and the life is reborn, while the tempest is just history. This is more less how a novel “Quo Vadis” ends to sum up the rules of Nero, so cheer up!

“So how do you interpret that right arm?”

Interesting.

Here’s some off the top of my head.

Reagan was grounded on bedrock (truth, faith, etc.)

Reagan was a rock (unshakable).

Reagan’s work is not finished, or

Poland was using Obama’s stimulus money to create this, until Obama found out what it was being used for.

Perhaps, you don't know that Reagan was ready to help Poland even in times he wasn't sworn in. According to documents revealed not so long ago, as a President-elect he got President Carter to send a joint message to Kremlin in December 1980, when more than two million Warsaw Pact armies surrendered Poland waiting for the command to invade (US services detected them via satellites).

The message was clear, “If you invade, America and NATO will be forced to come to the aid of Poland”.

Whatever, the Russians pulled out without obvious reasons why. They tried again in April next year but abandoned their plans after the assassination attempt of Reagan. After Reagan had eventually warned Moscow against any invasion of Poland just a day before he was shot, the Soviets began to fear for being accused of taking part in it to stop America from coming into the aid of Poland in case of the Warsaw pact invasion. They feared that such an accusation, in such circumstances, would merely provoke America to a reaction of unprecedented tremendous proportions.
That time, Moscow abandoned any plans of military invasion of Poland and told Jaruzelski to do that with his own army.

Strange and perhaps even ironic, but true.

Exactly, Jaruzelski was a traitor, I can’t believe some Poles believe he saved Poland from invasion in 1981 with Martial Law.

He literally begged for the Soviets to come in, and when they refused, he convinced the Polish armed forces that invasion was inevitable, when he knew he was lying through his teeth.

I’ve got a bottle of champagne ready to pop open when that sukinsyn, finally croaks.

Have you seen a Polish movie “The Teutons” by A.Ford, or read the novel by H.Sienkiewicz?

The nightmare that Teutons did to a Polish landlord Yurand, and then Yurand's revenge - he let the perpetrator go free without the physical penalty.
I don't think Jaruzelski will ever hang himself on a gallows as a result of his dirty conscience, because he's got no conscience at all. At least, kneeling in front of God's throne during the Judgment Day, he won't be able to accuse anybody of not giving him the necessary time to convert and repent. That will be worse to him than any of our hypothetical penalty.

I was in H.S. at the time when General Jaruzelski declared Martial Law. I remember the German teacher at my H.S. Her long with one other teacher were big supporters of socialism/communism and the German teacher made the remark that the Polish people got out of line and mentioned the gov’t had a right to impose Marital Law. Pretty astounding statement even to this day and especially then ! Especially living in a free country and the lines were definite between freedom and communism were very clear.

> That time, Moscow abandoned any plans of military invasion of Poland and told Jaruzelski to do that with his own army.

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Walesa unveils one more for the 'Gipper'