Premium
The “Polish Problem”– American War‐Time Perspectives
Author(s) -
Salisbury Christopher G.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
australian journal of politics and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-8497
pISSN - 0004-9522
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8497.00090
Subject(s) - superpower , alliance , political science , state (computer science) , political economy , politics , charter , world war ii , democracy , dilemma , government (linguistics) , law , history , sociology , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , algorithm , computer science
As one of the initial, and arguably most devastated, casualties of the Second World War, Poland’s restoration as a free and independent state was seen as a test case for the viable continuation of the victorious Grand Alliance. Yet seemingly irreconcilable differences between the Western powers and the Soviet Union over intricate territorial and political issues (with the Polish state and people caught firmly in the middle) would signal the end of the working alliance. The US collectively struggled to come to terms with this “Polish problem”– its government failing to deliver to the Poles on those democratic principles enshrined within the Atlantic Charter, and its people finding the very ideals for which they had gone to war compromised. While reflecting the unique complexities of this particular dilemma, American officialsrsquo; perceptions of the conundrum over Poland bear a ringing familiarity to future East European developments and certainly set the tone for the ensuing West‐Soviet impasse there. Indeed, this author would not be alone in suggesting that the superpower struggle over Poland at the close of World War II was itself the very genesis of the Cold War conflict.