Poland: My Heart Will Stay

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After the Pope's triumphant visit, Jaruzelski faces difficult choices

From the very beginning, Pope John Paul II's return visit to Poland seemed a bold gamble. The government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski had made no secret of the fact that it viewed the papal pilgrimage as a way to rehabilitate Poland in the eyes of the world. But if the authorities thought they could manipulate the Polish-born Pontiff, they were mistaken. John Paul was determined to speak his mind and his heart, however uncomfortable he made his secular hosts. As the Pope moved across Poland, he showed by word and gesture that he understood the meaning of the euphoric parenthesis of freedom that Poles had known for 16 months after the creation of the independent Solidarity trade union. Worse, in the government's view, millions of Poles responded to the Pope with joy, expectation and, in some cases, displays of antigovernment defiance.

In the aftermath of John Paul's visit, Poland's military leaders would have to decide whether to jolt the country with another crackdown or take advantage of the good will generated by the Pope. To salvage his reputation in Moscow and among hard-liners at home, Jaruzelski needed to counter the Pontiff's bold words with stern action. To win Western support for Poland's listing economy, he would have to go even further in reaching out to the church and society. Jaruzelski could, of course, also choose to do nothing, as if the Pope had never come. But as a State Department analyst warned last week: "Poland is an emotional and volatile nation. The Pope may have lit a time bomb."

Just as John Paul was preparing to board the Soviet-built Ilyushin jet that would take him back to Rome, President Reagan sent the Jaruzelski government a message on what the U.S. expected from the papal visit. Addressing a group of Polish Americans in Chicago, many of whom were waving Solidarity pennants, Reagan described the Pope's visit as "a ray of hope for the Polish people." The President hinted that if Poland's military rulers decided to follow the path of liberalization, the Western alliance would consider lifting economic sanctions. Said Reagan: "I urge the Polish authorities to translate the restraint they showed during the papal visit into willingness to move toward reconciliation with the Polish people."

The Kremlin and its Warsaw Pact allies were uncharacteristically silent. But the subject of Poland is sure to come up at a meeting of Warsaw Pact leaders that could occur in Moscow as early as this week. For the Soviets, there was at least one disturbing sign that the Polish disease may be creeping across East-bloc borders. During a government-sponsored peace congress in Prague, a group of 300 youths marched toward Wenceslas Square, the scene of protests after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, and shouted, "We want peace! We want freedom!" The demonstration was small by Polish standards, but it was one of the largest public displays of opposition in Czechoslovakia in at least a decade.