LETTER TO MR. JOHN RICHARDSON, JR.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R003800180035-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 31, 2002
• Sequence Number: 35
• Publication Date: June 12, 1958
• Content Type: LETTER

Executive Registry
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June 12, 1958
Mr. John Rich, ardion Jr.
Twenty Five Broad Street
Eighteenth Floor
New York, New York
Dear John:
Many thanks for your note of June 10, 1958.
Through Karl Harr I was quite familiar with your inter-
esting Polish project. It seems to me you have done an
outstanding job in a very useful field.
Sincerely,
AWD:at
Distribution:
Orig - Addressee
1 cc - DCI File
1 cc - ER w/basic
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POLISH MEDICAL AID PROJECT
COMMITTEE
Co-Chairman
MR. FRANCIS BOYER
President
SMITH, KLINE & FRENCH
LABORATORIES
Co-Chairman
DR. THEODORE G. KLUMPP
President
WINTHROP LABORATORIES
DR. LOUIS H. BAUER
Secretary General
WORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
MR. ROBERT A. HARDT
Vice President
ROCHE LABORATORIES
MR. C. D. JACKSON
Vice President
TIME. INC.
DR. HOWARD A. RUSK
Associate Editor
THE NEW YORK TIMES
DR. LEONARD A. SCHEELE
President
WARNER-CHILCOTT
LABORATORIES
Secretary
MR. JOHN RICHARDSON. JR.
Partner
PAINE, WEBBER. JACKSON
& CURTIS
The purpose of this letter is to invite your firm to participate
in a program of medical aid to Poland. Initiated by our industry,
this is a program which can advance the national interest of the
United States and the cause of freedom in general while it saves life
and relieves human suffering.
The members of this committee have come together because we are
convinced of the critical importance of this project. Cooperating
organizations are the International Rescue Committee, CARE and the
Committee on Medicine and Health of the People-to-People Foundation.
Our proposal concerns a people who are at the very center of
the East-West conflict. After ten years of complete suppression and
following the revelation of Stalin's crimes and the Poznan riots,
the fiercely proud and patriotic people of Poland. brought about
political changes in 1956 which, to this day, make Poland by far the
freest country within the Soviet sphere. Collective farms have been
broken up; religion has been granted tolerance and respect; political
arrests no longer take place; there is even limited freedom for
private enterprise. The example of this relatively liberal political
order in a strategically vital area constitutes a serious threat to
the Soviet control system throughout Eastern Europe. This provides
a deterrent to Soviet aggression worth many divisions of men in
terms of our own national security.
For over a year now, the Gomulka regime has walked a political
tightrope, pressured by the Kremlin toward the reimposition of
Communist police discipline on one side, and resisted on the other
by the Polish people, grimly determined to maintain at least the
measure of individual liberty already secured.
In recent months the balance has tilted ominously in favor of
Moscow. With Soviet prestige enormously increased by Sputnik and
with the memory of Hungary growing dim in the world at large, the
U.S.S.R. and its satellites have launched a systematic campaign
of pressure and harassment against the Polish "revisionists."
Mao-Tse-tung and many other Soviet bloc luminaries have publicly
warned the Poles against the perils of accepting further American
assistance.
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So far, Gomulka has apparently not conceded anything with respect to
American aid. Our government has recently agreed with Poland to provide fur-
ther credits, primarily for the purchase of agricultural surplus, machinery,
etc. Acute though the economic problem is in Poland, however, the crux of the
matter is not money but morale. In order to maintain their present limited de-
gree of freedom, individuals in Poland -- writers, churchmen, doctors, teachers,
politicians and ordinary people -- must constantly speak out, risking eventual
punishment. We in America must find ways to demonstrate to such people that we
care about them and what they stand for. Once the outspoken are silenced, once
hopelessness takes the place of daring, there is little doubt that police terror
will return to Poland, as it has to Hungary. If that time comes, America will
have lost a great opportunity.
We believe that this situation provides the American drug industry with a
unique challenge. There is today a critical shortage of medicines in Poland and
a keen public awareness of the need. Until the time when domestic production
can begin to meet minimum needs, Poland must rely on imports, principally from
the West -- imports drastically limited by the shortage of foreign exchange.
A program of private aid amounting to $2 million, at manufacturer's prices,
in the form of acutely needed medicines supplied over a twelve-month period,
would go far toward meeting minimum needs. It would also constitute dramatic
and tangible evidence of American public concern for these 28 million allies in
the struggle for freedom. We ask your help in making this possible.
Medicines donated will be shipped by CARE to its warehouse in Gdynia,
Poland, and from there to recipient hospitals under the supervision of commit-
tees of practicing physicians of outstanding character and reputation, already
established in Warsaw, Poznan and Cracow. The Polish Ministry of Health has
agreed (1) not to reduce the level of imports of pharmaceuticals from the West,
(2) to cooperate fully with CARE and the committees of physicians and (3) to
authorize "Gift of the American People" labelling.
The appropriate departments in Washington, including the White House,
have given this project enthusiastic support.
A list of needed drugs, marked to indicate the most critical items, is
enclosed, together with a memorandum covering certain technical phases of the
project. Contributions of medicines may be made immediately or at any time
during 1958. We sincerely hope that your total contribution will constitute
a generous proportion of the $2 million over-all objective. This is a big
order, but we are convinced that the success of this program is important
enough to our country to justify it. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely yours,
Francis Boyer Theodore G. Klumpp
P.S. In view of the fact that this letter deals with sensitive areas of
public policy, may we ask you to treat it as confidentially as possible.
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Supplementary Information
1. Safeguards. The principal safeguards against misuse of the
medicines are: (a) direct shipments to using institutions
under supervision of CARE personnel; (b) allocations of
medicines among institutions in accordance with needs by
committees of prominent physicians; (c) shipments to :Poland
to be made over a period of twelve months, so that they can
be interrupted at any time if any doubt arises.
2. Public Relations. There will be no public announcement of the
program in the United States until after it is well underway.
Thereafter, information will initially be released only in
response to inquiries based on reports in the Polish press and
from American correspondents in Poland. Any such comment will
be very restrained, stressing the humanitarian aspects.
It is believed that this approach will not only minimize
any risk to the success of the program but will also ulti-
mately produce the optimum impact in the United States
through editorial comrient, magazine articles, etc.
3. Tax Status. Contributions will be made to CAIN and as such
will be fully deductible for Federal Income Tax purposes.
t. Shipping. Contributions should be shipped to CARE,
c 7o Mack Vlarehouse, Pier 38 South, Delaware Wharves,
Delaware and Queens St., Philadelphia, Pa., marked
"Polish Medical Aid."
Additional Information. All inquiries with respect to tech-
nical and other aspects of the program should be addressed
to Mr. John Richardson, Jr., 18th Floor, 25 Broad Street,
New York (HAnover 2-55~.O) or to his associate in the
medical aid project, M.ss Barbara Nagorski, International
Rescue Committee, 255 Fourth Avenue, New York (ORegon 4-
4200). 'r. Richardson, a director of the International
Rescue Committee, travelled to Poland to explore the
feasibility of the program last fall.
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Ucdicinos Needed in Poland
(Capitalized i=s are most urgency required)
Name
(Generic or Trade)
Suggested Dosage
ERYTI IR01 ? : C IN US 11
1,200 kg,
0,1 gm.& 0.2 gm tabs
AUREO? YCIN
2,3C0 kg.
0.25 gm.caps
TERRAI YCIIa
2,000 kg.
250 mg. caps
VIO' YCIN
400 kg,
1 gin. vials
11EOI YCIN
450 kg.
0.5 gin. tabs
SIGI AT'YCIN
Tetracycline
Chloromycetin
Neomycin Sulfate USP
Streptomycin
Combiotic
Achromycin
I1yostatin
Dihydrostreptomycin
400 kg.
unlimited
250 mg. caps
Sulfate Injection USP
Furadantin
Furacin Ointment
Furacin Soluble Dressing
SERO1YCIN
P A S
I N H
Rimif on
it
1,200 kg,
unlimited
0.25 pulvules
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Name
Amount Needed
Suggested Dosage
IRGAPYPIN (or butapyrin)
1.5 million
5 mi. amps
1.5 million
0.2 mg, tabs
BUTAZOLIDIN
600 thousand
3 ml. amps
Solganol
unlimited
PR?IDNISONE
3 million
5 mg. tabs
I-iYDROCORTISONr
120 thou.
5 ml. amps
Prednisolone
unilimited
ACTH
Sigmagen
Proloid - Thyroglobulin
extract
Oxytocin Injection
Depo-Tostadiol
Protamine Zinc insulin
injection USP
Isophane Insulin
injection USP
Insulin injection USP
Orinase
I21 PROBAHATE
FRENQUEL
ATARAX
Meprolone
Thorazine
Sparine
Ultran
4 million 400 mg. tabs
4 million 20 mg. tabs
600 thou. tabs
unlimited
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Name
HYDERGIN`;E
APPJSOLINE
RE SERPINE
Amount Needed
250 thou.
700 thou.
Sug7ested Dosage
amps & vials
tabs
0.1 mg. tabs
0.25 mg, tabs
D IAI4OX
Diuril
DIGITALIS GLYCOSIDE
10 million
1,300 thou.
unlimited
1,400 thou.
200 thou.
2 million
80 thou.
0.25 mg. tabs
2 ml. amps
0.2 mg. tabs
10 ml. vials
Digoxin
unlimited
Digitoxin LISP
Levophed
Aminophyllin
tabs
Theophyllin
n
amps
IC LLIN
650 thou.
25 mg. tabs
Phenergan
unlimited
Benadryl
Chlor - Tri eton
Sandostene
Heparin Sodium
It
airps
VITAPIN A
2 million
caps
VITAT'iIN A+D
40 million
caps
VIT.A1,1III D2
400 thou.
vials, amps
VITAU1N B COMPLEX
90 million
tab s
i IJLTIV ITAMIN
150 million
tabs
AI'.'iINO ACIDS
100 thou.
500 ml. vials
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POLISH MEDICAL AID PROJECT
TWENTY FIVE BROAD STREET
NEW YORK 4, N. Y.
COMMITTEE
Co-Chairman
MR. FRANCIS BOYER
President
SMITH, KLINE & FRENCH
LABORATORIES
Co-Chairman
DR. THEODORE G. KLUMPP
President
WINTHROP LABORATORIES
DR. LOUIS H. BAUER
Secretary General
WORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
MR. ROBERT A. HARDT
Vice President
ROCHE LABORATORIES
MR. C. D. JACKSON
Vice President
TIME, INC.
DR. HOWARD A. RUSK
Associate Editor
THE NEW YORK TIMES
DR. LEONARD A. SCHEELE
President
WARNER-CHILCOTT
LABORATORIES
Secretary
MR. JOHN RICHARDSON. JR.
Partner
PAINE, WEBBER. JACKSON
S CURTIS
LIE MORA ND UN
April 22, 1958
1. We feel that you should have the benefit of the enclosed
article on Poland which appeared in the April 12 issue
of TIT,, SATURDAY EVENING POST. It is an interesting and pro-
vocative account of the current political and psychological
situation in Poland -- the situation which makes private
American aid so extraordinarily significant,
2. Also enclosed is a memorandum of questions and answers
on the Project which it is hoped will be helpful in your
consideration of the Project. V
3o Some firms have asked whether they can make a contribu-
tion even though they do not have available any of the
products on the list enclosed with the Committee's letter.
The answer is that in many cases this is not only possible
but could be very helpful. The basic list of needs is not
exhaustive. If such firms could make available other items,
preferably in the same general categories as those appearing
on the list, they should let the Committee know and we will
be happy to advise them whether particular items they wish
to offer can be usefully employed in PPoland.
Li.. Initial response to the Committee's letter has been most
encouraging. It would be helpful for planning.. purposes
if those firms which intend to participate in the Project,
but have not yet communicated with the Committee, would do
so as soon as they conveniently can, even though the precise
form and amount of the contribution may not have been de-
termined. This is of special importance since i.r. John
Richardson, Jr., Secretary of the Committee, intends to leave
for Poland at the earliest possible date to supervise final
arrangements for the distribution of the pharmaceuticals.
Theodore G. Klumpp, 1,I.D,a
Co-Chairman
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vvnv icussia
Has Poland Trouble
For generations the Poles have hated the Russians,
and they still do. Even now, they make threatening noises at
their conquerors. A Post editor reports from Warsaw.
"The gentle French dreamer Fourier predicted
That one day the oceans would run with lemonade.
Our leaders drank the sea water,
And they shouted: `It tastes like lemonade.'
Then quietly they crept to their homes
To retch and vomit."
(Comment on Communism by Polish Communist poet, Adam Wazyk)
WARSAW.
It's late winter, Warsaw, and cold outside.
In one spacious midtown square, where the
rough cast-iron statue of Dzerzhinski glow-
ers down on shivering passers-by, it always
seems ten degrees colder. Dzerzhinski, the ice-
cold revolutionary, is a half-forgotten ghoul
today. But once he was a dread name that
made even Lenin and Stalin wince.
Why Dzerzhinski, and why here? The Poles
are loath to admit it, but Bolshevik Feliks
Dzerzhinski was born a Pole. He was the first
secret-police chief of the Cheka, which became
the O.G.P.U., which became the N.K.V.D.
and now is the M.V.D. This ugly statue, like
the nearby skyscraper Palace of Culture, is a
gift from the Soviet people to the Polish
people. In the same sense that the wooden
horse was a gift from the Greeks to` the people
of Troy.
This monster monument is as popular in
Warsaw as would be a memorial to Oliver
Cromwell in Dublin, General Sherman in
Atlanta, Georgia, or Benedict Arnold at West
Point. If there is any form of humanity pa-
triotic Poles despise more than Russians, it is
Poles who do the dirty work for the Russians-
Dzerzhinski a generation ago or Marshal
Rokossovsky just yesterday.
In the sullen, restless climate of opinion in
Poland there are many elements and emotions
neither clear nor simple. It would be false to
try to make them so. It is best to begin this
report with an accent on simple glandular ha-
tred, the historical Polish hatred of all things
By James P O'Donnell
To miss this simple truth is to miss ev-
erything. It boils up in every discussion,
has provoked one recent explosion and
threatens another. Often it hits the visitor
in the face like a spanking breeze off the
Vistula. Recently, trying to mend some
prestige fences, the Soviet Ministry of
Culture sent to Warsaw one of the best
plays in the Moscow repertory, a modem
problem drama by the poet Mayakovsky.
Up went the opening curtain, revealing
the fine living room of a well-heeled
Moscow citizen-leather-bound books, a
warm fireplace, a TV set and a resplendent
new electric refrigerator. Peals of mock-
ing laughter swept the Warsaw first-night
audience. When' the perplexed Russian
director came out front to discover what
had gone wrong this time, the haughty
Poles were only too keen to tell him:
"Today, we may be too poor to afford
that icebox, but we are civilized enough
to know it belongs in the kitchen, not the
parlor."
Almost all Polish jokes about the Ivans
have this lace-curtain fringe, variants on
the basic theme that the Russian pig is
unwanted in the Polish parlor.
As an American reporter, only in Tur-
key have I ever before met such violent
revulsion against the Russians as a people,
a popular vocabulary in which the words
"Soviet," "Russian" and "Communist"
are a single anathema. The Poles, the
Irish of the Slavs, are much more volatile
and loquacious than the Turks, and Tur-
key at least lies outside the Soviet sphere
of influence. But geography keeps Poland
within that sphere, semi-demi free. This is
the terrible danger. Poland is a satellite
wobbling on its own axis, propelled by an
intense desire to seek a national orbit of
its own, to explode itself into freedom.
In the Polish rebellion of October,
1956, what Radio Warsaw called "Our
Springtime in October," the wrath of the
people demanded, and got, the removal
of the pseudo-Pole Marshal Rokossovsky
as Commander in Chief of the Polish
Army. Students and workers in Warsaw
almost toppled Dzerzhinski too. They
scaled the pedestal and smeared his hands
with paint, blood red. The despised
statue, like the whole Communist regime
in Poland, teetered, but it did not fall.
Why it did not fall is already part of the
modern legend of Warsaw.
The time was early November, 1956.
The whole world had tuned in on the tur-
bulent October in Warsaw, the stirring
and heart-lifting spectacle of a captive
people clanking loose many of their
shackles. Suddenly, world attention and
Soviet malice were directed south, to the
more dramatic and bloodier revolt of the
Hungarians.
In those days, Warsaw and Budapest
were quivering on almost the same fre-
quency-it was sympathetic vibration.
The rebellious spirit of Posnan and War-
saw had inspired the Magyars to try to go
farther, faster. During the whole Hun-
garian upheaval the telegraph and tele-
phone lines from Budapest to Warsaw
remained in full operation. Polish re-
porters-three of whom fought with the
Hungarians-filed the fullest running
stories. Poland was first to hear the bad
news from Budapest, when it finally
turned bad.
As Soviet tanks moved on that bitter
November fourth to crush the Hungarian
freedom fighters, all Warsaw seethed with
frustrated fraternal fury.. By midnight a
menacing crowd had assembled down-
town, determined to do something, any-
thing, to let off steam. They started to
warm up by chanting patriotic songs
Russian except vodka, co e Cossack r c meease
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 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80PP1676R0038 .1Affiq?r&nost there is geography.
laced with virulent anti-Soviet slogans:
"Russian SS!" "Ivan Go Home!"
"Katyn, Katyn, Katyn"-in memory of
the 10,000 Polish officers murdered in
Poland's Katyn Forest, in 1940, by the
Soviet secret police. Soon the idea of
toppling Dzerzhinski was broached. As
one group moved on the statue, another
set off to get crowbars and battering rams
to storm the Soviet Embassy.
About midway between these two mag-
nets of popular wrath stands a small
Roman Catholic church. Word of the
crowd's daring but hare-brained purpose
was relayed to the archepiscopal palace
of Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, himself
just out of prison. A cool churchman in a
nation of born hotheads, the awakened
cardinal hopped quickly out of bed,
slipped into his red-piped cassock, was
driven hastily to the church, and began
saying one of the most unorthodox low
masses in ecclesiastical history. (The time
was now 3 A.m.) This symbolic and molli-
fying act, by a cardinal with a native
knowledge of Polish psychology, man-
aged to deflect and calm the madding
crowd. By such a thin thread did fearful
decisions hang in the balance, and the
thread is still thin today. Luckily, the
cardinal is still as cool.
Recently I stood with a group of War-
saw students in front of the statue of
Dzerzhinski. It impressed me as an awk-
ward object for anyone to topple. But
engineer students of Warsaw Polytech
hastened to assure me to the contrary.
After a measured study of stress and
strain, they have decided "the weak spot
is in the ankles." These Warsaw stu-
dents-there are 27,000 in the capital
city-use their slip sticks and logarithm
tables for more than academic home-
work. It is inspiring, but more than a bit
frightening, to realize with what crazy
courage these young Polish Davids gaze
straight into the eyes of the Soviet Goliath.
While the rest of the world marvels at
the triumph of Soviet technicians in
launching the Sputniks, and Khrushchev
boasts of shooting the moon, it is time
perhaps to take a good inner look at this
nagging satellite problem right on the
ground. Poland is not on the moon. And
today more than engineers ponder the
question: "How strong are Dzerzhinski's
ankles?"
i Which is another way of asking: "How
long can Gomulka last?" For eighteen
swiveling monthG now, this plucky little
Communist has been defying all the laws
of political gravity, still aloft as the boss
of a bankrupt Communist Party and state
apparatus, buoyed up by the known anti-
Communist sentiments of 95 per cent of
the Polish people. Washington is coy
about underwriting him, Moscow hesi-
tates to shoot him down.
When a plodder ecomes a tig rope
walker, the suspense can be nerve-rack- The rebel Tito twitted Stalin from the
ing. Wladyslaw Gomulka was born to be relatively safe side of the Iron Curtain,
lonely. Today he still walks alone, the from outside the post-1945 stamping
tightrope over a chasm, and the end of grounds of the Red Army. Gomulka's
the act may well be sudden and tragic. Poland lies.right across the supply lines of
When he looks around today in Warsaw the powerful Red Army in East Germany.
at his own. nine-man Politburo, he sees Politically, Tito at home is the most or-
the faces of six men who betrayed him thodox and leftist of Marxist-Leninists,
once before-when Stalin ordered his running a tight, personal satrapy perhaps
purge in 1948-the craven faces of men more monolithic today than Big Brother,
waiting for the cock to crow a second the Soviet Union. Finally, there is the
time. He speaks for the Poles on one utter contrast in character. Tito is a blend
issue only, sovereignty, a curious com- of the Balkan bandit with the peacock
pact blessed by a Roman Catholic car- strut of a Mussolini and the wassailing
dinal. Gomulka, coming out of jail, met ways of a Hermann Goering. Gomulka is
the Polish people on the march toward a frank, plodding, almost ascetic man.
national freedom. Both made a deal in Nor is Gomulka's Poland today a tyr-
the middle of the road. Poland today is a anny. Citizens and writers complain
halfway house, but the middle of the openly about restraints on freedom, itself
road is a perilous place to build a house. a real freedom.
Poland today is half slave, half free,
a twilight paradise for those who In terms of world Communism today-
enjoy paradox, but a dismal day-to-day that secular religion-Tito is only a
schismatic, taking advantage of his own
purgatory for the Polish people them- geography, whereas in the colorless but
selves. On the economic front, which many courageous Gomulka we may be seeing,
regard as critical, things are not much the emergence of an authentic Communist
better-or worse-than in 1956; which heretic. Viewed in this light, many of the
is to say, they are desperate. paradoxes of Poland today, many of
Poland is still a police state, but with Gomulka's seeming strange actions, are
'the cops at the moment engaged in arrest- not so much strange as agonizing. What is
ing their former chiefs and bringing them often forgotten is that this man Gomulka
to trial, in a legal manner, for "crimes is not a Pole who just happened to be a
against the people," which were exactly Communist. He is a lifelong Communist
that. Atheist Communism is still the offi- who happens to be a Pole, and sat ten
cial state doctrine, but the state has years in four Polish jails for his beliefs.
thrown open school doors for voluntary What makes Gomulka interesting, indeed
instruction in the Catholic religion. Let what makes him possible at this stage of
the church, as Gomulka put it dourly, "go history, is precisely his Communism.
its doctrinaire Roman way." The press is What is unique in Gomulka's career is
still hobbled, but the censor spends most that he is the only prominent Communist
of his time blue-penciling anti-Russian in the Soviet sphere who had the anathema
and pro-American nuggets that wily of heresy hurled at him by Stalin himself
all
Polish, journalists and cartoonists work (1948), survived by the skin of his teeth,,
all day to slip into their copy. and returned to a position of power.
Elections are still rigged, but Western Hence the high drama of his violent
reporters covering last year's Sejm (Par- dialogue with Khrushchev and Com-
liament) election called it the most honest pany. Gomulka, Gomulka, for that was
phony election ever held in Communist a name that belonged in the same East
Eastern Europe. Marxist-Leninism is still European dead-letter box with the Czech
the official economic religion of the state. Slansky, the Hungarian Rajk, the Bul-
Yet the Ministry of Agriculture is busily garian Kostov-those long-gone East
engaged in dismantling collective farms- European martyrs.
fewer than 1700 of some 12,000 remain- Yet there he stood. Wladyslaw Go-
and this year the Polish peasant has more mulka is the wily cat of the Communist
freedom to plant what crops he chooses movement, who has used up only seven
than many peasants in Western Europe. of his nine lives. He is also the true ex-
Freedom of speech, which for several ample of Nikita Khrushchev's parable:
giddy months was universal, is still sub- "A man takes on the dignity of the job to
stantial. Nobody today can mount a which he is elected." In October, 1956,
soapbox in Constitution Square and de- heretic"Gomulka had just been elected by
nounce.Gomulka, Khrushchev or even the terrified Polish Politburo to tell the
John Foster Dulles. This must be done in visiting Moscow cabinet the facts of life
a caf? or cabaret, and before fewer than about Soviet imperialism. Gomulka took
100 off both gloves and threw them down as
What, then, is Gomulkism? Certainly gauntlets.
it is something new under the sun. When
this stubborn Pole was wafted back into
power in October, 1956, his cheeks still
pale with the pallor of Stalinist prisons,
many in the Western world welcomed
Gomulka as a second Tito. But this
analogy is in many ways false. Poland is
enveloped in Soviet military power, like
t i sandwich.
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 The For Release 2f ( t1; ,0&I Q~,@~1 fiiT1oR00349, Q{ -glued by a group of young
The full text of Gomulka's philippic his back to the wall, and for a while it Communist students and intellectuals, an
has never been published, but enough is looked as if there was no wall there. But elite trained and subsidized by the regime.
known in Warsaw today to make it one at least there were 28,000,000 Poles there, Slowly-and this was the true beginning
of the most damning indictments of
Soviet rapacity ever uttered. Khrushchev
nounced Stalinism, but with dialectical
precision he was most careful to portray
Stalin not as a product of the Soviet sys-
tem, but as a perverter of it. Nor was
there any mention of Stalin's crimes be-
yond the borders of the U.S.S.R. On this
crucial point, Gomulka turned Khrush-
chev's flank. He argued that as far as the
Polish nation was concerned, Stalinism
was not a perversion of the system, it was
the system itself and for several hours he
read from his long, cost-accounted list of
crass Soviet violations of Polish sover-
eignty:
The U.S.S.R. had cheated Poland out
of her 15 per cent share in German
reparations, promised at Potsdam, but
carted off to Russia.
Soviet factory and industrial removals
from Polish Silesia, claimed as German
assets, were flagrant industrial piracy.
Forced exports.were a third form of
plunder. Millions of tons of coal, Poland's
most precious national wealth, had been
paid for by Moscow at $3.00 a ton when
the world price had risen to $20.00.
Soviet trade officials had invented rub-
ber rubles, a two-way stretch allowing
Russia to buy cheap and sell dear. in
Poland.
The Polish Six Year. Plan, written in
Moscow, distorted Polish heavy industry
to serve the Soviet war economy. Polish
plants had to produce steel plate for
North Korean tanks, hence no cranes
were available for the rebuilding , of
Warsaw.
Stalinism had brought utter ;madne?s'to
the Polish countryside.. Soviet designs
were forced,on Polish tractor plants, as if
Polish small holdings could be farmed
like steppes. Poland's once-rich. fields be-
came bread factories to feed the mouths
of the resident Red Army, while Poles
in towns and cities had to import grain
from Canada.
And finally, crimes against humanity.
Russia's "little Berias" had taken over the
Polish .police, kidnaped, jailed and mur-
dered tens of thousands of Polish citizens
in purges ordered by the paranoid Stalin.
The prominent victims of this terrorism
included Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, the
Deputy Commander in Chief of the
Polish Armed Forces Marian Spychalski,
and Gomulka himself-then . Deputy
Premier, now First Secretary of the
party. Gomulka ended the confrontation
scene on a note of eloquent modesty:
"Our Polish cup has been filled to the
brim, and over."
like Gomulka himself filled from head to of the October revolution-the editors
toe with a ferocious patriotism. It was became patriotic and angry young men,
Khrushchev who was forced to flinch. "the enraged ones." Circulation shot up
After this act of supreme courage is it to 150,000 as they turned their search-
likely that Gomulka, who won such a lights into the dark corners of the Polish
showdown victory over Moscow in national house. When Gomulka came to
1956-"Accept the Polish road to social- power, these young hot-shots looked like
ism or accept chaos"-would willingly his boys, and as exciting as if the editors
betray his own victory? It is not likely. of the Harvard Crimson had taken over
Having crossed the Rubicon, what then Pravda.
made Gomulka hesitate to continue the But with more courage than discretion
march? , the muckraking editors kept the search-
Realism and fear, fear of the iron light burning. After a short honeymoon
Soviet shadow. As one pro-Gomulka with the new regime, they went after
member of the Polish Politburo put it, Gomulka's failure to purge known Stalin-
"We have no Himalayas." Gomulka ists, his soft-talk on the Soviet Union, the
himself, in a grim appeal for steady nerves, mummery in the Polish Parliament,
warned his people, "One false step and crooks and plunderers in the national
Poland will be crossed off the map of industries, universal black marketing,
Europe." Everyone knew he was not the national spree of drunkenness, wild
talking of an invasion by the Swiss. Since inflation, the paralysis of production.
October, 1956, Soviet policy toward Their last crack, in the issue that never
Poland has been shrewd and even sinis- hit the streets, was a true Parthian shot:
ter, but it has not been mysterious. The "For Stalinist chaos, Gomulka has sub-
short-term policy has been to tolerate stituted pure Polish chaos."
this heretic to prevent out-and-out anti- The sad sequel shows perhaps the true
Communist upheaval. The long-term mood of today's Poland, where the angry
policy is to export Gomulka just enough young men-called "Revisionists"-are
rope so he can hang himself. left to gasp like mackerel on the strand,
their brave ideas mouthfuls of air. When
In this dreadful game of chess, being Po Prostu was closed down in October,
played over the prostrate body of the 1957, the protests did not approach the
Polish nation, our Western response has intensity and fervor of the "bread-and-
been feeble. and confusing. Common freedom" revolt that swept the major
sense could have told us one thing about cities of Poland in 1956. It was only a
Gomulka. A hero does not bug out in the straw blaze. This time the disgruntled
very next battle. If Gomulka has been auto workers at the Zeran plant did not
bending his neck and sometimes his knee march into downtown Warsaw. They are
in the direction of Moscow, someone is keeping their hidden arms for another
twisting his arm. That someone is day. Sydney Gruson, New York Times
Khrushchev. Meanwhile our Western correspondent in Warsaw, wrapped up
statesmen see a man wrestling with a bear, the whole story in one sharp lead : "The
a bear we know is our mortal enemy, so
from time to time they send the man
peanuts. Poland has been given less aid
than Fascist Spain, medieval Jordan or
even Nasser's Egypt.
Today it may already be too late to
save the Gomulka experiment. It is dis-
mal to record the ebbing of the high tide
of real freedom this country reached in
October, 1956. Most symbolic, since a free
press could have been the megaphone for
broaching other reforms, has been the
remuzzling of the press. And most ironic,
because it was the very journal that
sparked his own ascent to power, was
Gomulka's decision to ban Po Prostu
(Plain Speaking) for plain speaking. To
avoid giving offense to the Soviets,
Gomulka has taken to censoring his own
speeches, and now releases - trimmed
versions through the official news
agency, properly called PAP.
The drama of Po Prostu was perky
while it lasted. In the bad old Stalinist
days, Po Prostu had been just another
turgid party-line weekly, circulation
same week that Po Prostu was banned,
the price of butter shot up 25 per cent and
all Poland grumbled. But only a handful
of students protested the banning of the
crusading journal." Freedom without
bread or freedom without butter on the
bread is not enough.
The Polish national mood today is
neither wrath nor hope, but almost uni-
versal frustration. This is not so much
hostility to Gomulka as glum realization
that he and Poland are caught in a bind.
In Warsaw student cellar cabarets, which
a year ago were alive with brilliant politi-
cal skits, the atmosphere today is weary
and cynical. Most students have turned
to American jazz and bop-"See you
later, deviator"-imported French exis-
tentialism, and some droll skits of their
own, including a gal philosophy student
who does a mock strip tease while reciting
pages from Spinoza's Ethics. Late in the
evening, a student dressed as a clown
comes oil stage pulling a seeming endless
rope. Asked if the rope has any end, he
replies, "No, it's been cut off." A student
next to me translates: "He means it's
been cut off-like our Gomulka revolu-
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 But the story is not so simple as that. In the west it is often asked whether
Td any outsider coming here with ex-
perience of oth 11OMeaisFedg1 iWeaSe
the Soviet Union, East Germany, Czecho-
slovakia, Yugoslavia-the very air is dif-
ferent. The Poles may be leashed, but
they have freedom to bark. Moreover,
four major reforms remain to this day
intact--the liberation of the Roman
Catholic Church, the defanging of the
secret police, the return of the land to
the men who till it, the Polish Army under
Polish command. These are not trifles.
Consider Polish Communism's retreat
in the battle with the Church for the minds
of Poland's youth. True, a priest is not
yet free to preach that Communism is the
opium of the people, but he can preach
the 8th Commandment-"Thou shalt not
bear false witness against thy neigh-
bor"-an effective way of saying the
same thing. On Corpus Christi, Polish
colonels now march the troops to Mass,
banners high proclaiming the Virgin
Mary "Queen of Poland." And, in the
hearts of this most Catholic of peoples,
she is.
Polish peasants-still 60 per cent of the
population-are working today like
demons to dismantle the collectives,
plow under the state farms and build
again their own fences around their re-
won land. This was.one of Gomulka's
most daring gambles. He restored capi-
talism to the countryside, hoping to save
socialism in the cities.
The third sweeping reform was the
curbing of the secret-police spooks. No
one in Poland today fears that knock on
the door. By throwing away this instru-
ment of persuasion, Gomulka, the Com-
munist, abandoned what many people
regard as the true fulcrum of Communist
power. Since the economic history of
man began, there have been but two
known ways to get a rather donkeylike
mankind to do a full day's work-the
carrot or the stick, free or slave labor.
Gomulka, to loud popular hosannas,
tossed away the stick, but he just did not
have many carrots to go round. This is
really what brought the Polish landslide
toward liberty to a crunching halt. With
strikes no longer a crime against the
state, the public transport workers of
Lodz soon voted to strike. They wanted
to raise their wretched $9.00 for a sixty-
hour week to the national level of $11.00.
But this, in turn, would have touched off
a general round of wage increases not
matched by production increases, hence
an ien wilder inflation. Gomulka
resorted to desperate remedies. He broke
the strike, then turned round and slapped
a 15 per cent national tax on vodka con-
sumption, creating a special fund to aid
the Lodz workers. The workers' response
was sardonically voiced by one of them:
"Now when I throw a roaring drunk off
my tram, he beats his breast and says he
was just drinking for my social security."
Approved
M L~los~ii~` "iY feTO03
looks as if he is moving warily in a vicious
circle. To his right are the old Stalinists,
now called "Conservatives," not exactly
House of Commons types. To his left are
the "Revisionists," a blanket terns for in-
tellectuals ranging from left-Communists
still arguing over the beard of the prophet
Marx, to fallen-away Communists eager
to move a long way toward social democ-
racy. Most Revisionists want their former
idol Gomulka to compound his heresy-
put the state above the party, put the
Parliament above both state and party,
take this idea from Mao, that from Tito,
ignore Moscow. Maybe, proposed Com-
munist deputy Julian Hochfeld in all
candor, it might be wise to wipe out the
present Communist Party and form two
new ones, so there could be livelier elec-
tions and debates.
After some months' hesitation, Go-
mulka decided he must continue to gov-
ern through the instrument of the party.
This may have been an instinctive reflex
out of his own past, but it was mightily
re-enforced by his knowledge that Mos-
cow would never tolerate a dismantling
of the Polish Workers' Party (Com-
munist). Yet as an instrument of power
this party was just about bankrupt, and
the people knew it. Watching Com-
munists trying to operate without the
bloodhounds of the secret police is like
watching the New York Yankees trying
to play baseball without bats.
At the top, including the majority of
the Politburo and most of the ministers,
are several old Stalinist nostalgics-called
the Natolin group-whom Gomulka did
not quite dare sack. What restrains them
from mounting a putsch against the
Gomulka New Deal is their memory of
October, 1956, and the Polish people's
memory. They would hang from lamp-
posts.
At the bottom of the party, the rank
and file, the situation is utterly laughable.
Before 1945 the true card-carrying mem-
bership of the Polish Communist Party
was about 20,000. In the next twelve years
it swelled to 1,200,000. Gomulka has
started a weeding-out process to locate
the true believers. That should get the
number down well below 20,000.
In the middle, as in all totalitarian
parties, are the apparatchiks, the alleged
backbone of the party. In Poland this
type is best represented by the bully-boys
who become "district secretaries," re-
gional managers and sometimes mayors.
These are the worst scalawags of all, to-
day acting like hermit crabs in search of
new shells. Born with two left hands,
ever since they lost thcir power to flog
the citizenry they have taken to milking
them.
Even a random reading of the Polish
press, social items that slip past the cen-
sor, reveals the mayor of Krakow up on a
charge of running a hot-car racket; the
chief architect of Posnan selling public
"ip80bir.pals at Miami rates; the
di'rector o } e meat-processing plant in
Elblag and the Party Secretary of Gdansk
running black-market resort-restaurants;
the MOTOIMPORTI branch of the
Ministry of Foreign Trade raffling off all
imported motorcycles; the mayor of
Olsztyn (Allenstein) cornering the dairy
market and opening up a string of milk
bars; the deputy mayor of Szczecin
(Stettin) arrested as the chief of a holdup
gang. The wife of a minister in Warsaw
controls a bevy of what in wicked capi-
talist countries are known as call girls.
Restoring capitalism in Poland someday
should not be too difficult. The Com-
munist Party faithful are already leading
the parade.
This Gargantuan graft is but part of
the Gomulka, inheritance. Worse by far
is the distortion of the fragile Polish
economy. The Soviets, in their twelve
years of economic tyranny in Poland,
bled their anemic ally like vampires from
the Dracula country. Cleverly, Russian
experts linked almost every Polish fac-
tory, as supplier or supplied, with the
master plan for Soviet industry. Ships the
Poles have been building on the Baltic
are designed for Russian engines and
Russian waters; the textile industry of
Lodz today gets its cotton out of Egypt
via Russia; the Zeran auto plant was
modeled on the Soviet Pobeda factory,
and must get its pacts from the east; the
URSUS tractor plant produces giant
tractors with Russian tank engines; the
giant and cost-crazy steel complex at
Nowa Huta-New Steel Town, near
Krakow-gets 70 per cent of its iron ore
not from Sweden, which would be better
and cheaper, but from Krivoi Rog in the
Soviet Union. The imperialism, in short,
was built in. Every time Moscow wants
to bring pressure on Warsaw the iron-
ore shipments.to Nowa Huta just do not
arrive.
Two can play at this game. We Amer-
icans can help stymie the blackmail.
Here indeed is a clue to the kind of
American aid that would be most.effec-
tive, most welcome to the Polish people,
and which does not involve vast sums.
We have as much obvious interest in
shoring up the Gomulka experiment as
Moscow has in undermining it. When.
they attempt to wring political conces-
sions from Poland by holding up iron
ore, or cotton, or grain, we can ship these
items, quickly and cheaply. In this kind
of economic warfare, we and our now
prosperous Western European allies have
most of the blue chips; we should be bet-
ter at it than the Soviets. This is probably
the only effective way to save the Go-
mulka regime-the alternative is an ex-
plosion that every sane observer here
dreads.
History seldom offers ideal choices.
To argue that Poland is still Communist
or that Gomulka is not a white-vest demo-
crat may be to miss the main chance. As
far as today's Poland is concerned, it is a
bit like standing on our lofty western
bank, and telling a drowning man how
CIA-RDP80B01676R003'8'1?pi4ze his gulping so much
water. t wou d Fe a blot on the American
record if that struggling Pole did drown.
THE END
 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80B01676R003800180035-6
CONF'IDEN'TIAL
Questions and Answers
Why should we help a communist goverrmient?
The Project will not help the Polish government in any way. M.2edi-
cines will be distributed outside of Polish government channels to
public hospitals only under the supervision of CARE and committees of
independent Polish physicians, The government will not reduce the
level of imports as a result of the program, Unlike U.S,.government
programs of aid to Poland, the Medical Aid Project is not intended to
.'nave, and will not have, any effect on the Polish economy, As pointed
out in the Corunittee t s letter the Polish people,, although within the
communist bloc, are in a position to influence directly events both
within Poland and in neighboring countries.
2, What assurance is there that the Soviet Union will not crack down
on Poland, making it impossible to carry out the program?
There can be no such assurance. One of the primary purposes of the
Project is to contribute to Polish morale, thereby making it less likely
that the Soviet Union will risk such a more.
3. How can we be sure that the medicines will not be diverted to the
Soviet Union or elsevbere?
Shipments will be made over a twelvemonth period with no large
inventory in Poland at any time. Medicines will be distributed by
CARE from its warehouse in Gdynian If the slightest doubt arises as
to the use of the medicines, shipments will be stopped pending inves-
tigation. CARE as well as certain Catholic agencies and others have
been distributing relief of various kinds in Poland for some time with
no problems of any consequence arising,,
4. Wontt the Project tend to cut into the market of manufacturers
already selling or planning to sell in Poland?
No. No reduction in planned imports will be made as a result of
the Project. On the other hand, since the Project is important for
the public hed_th of Poland, it is evident that the Ministry of Health
will be favorably disposed toward participating companies.
5. 'What assurance is there that the Polish public will learn about
the gifts?
Experience to date with the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Founda-
tion and CARE programs indicates that full press coverage in Poland
is most probable. Even if there should be no press coverage, tho-
rough investigation of this question in Poland makes it quite clear
that word of mouth information from thousands of doctors and patients
would be fully as effective? The shortage is so well known and the
need so widely felt that the source of any relief could not be hidden,
In addition, "Gift of the American People" or other appropriate
labelling will be used on all packages,
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 Approved For Release 2002/02/13 : CIA-RDP80B01676R003800180035-6
POLISH PEEDICA.L AID P_'OJECT
Questions and Answers - 2
6. If it is so important, why doesn't our government provide medicines
as part of its aid to Poland?
The government programs thus far have n;pt .ncluded finished con-
sumers goods. In the most recent program, ;~l million was, however,
allotted to medical equipment, Our government feels, as does the
Committee$ that aid in the form of medicines will be far more effec-
tive if contributed on a people to people basiso
7. Will there not be a psychological reaction in Poland against
America at the end of the t.velve-month period of distribution?
In the first place, the Polish pharmaceutical industry is rapidly
moving to fill minimum needs. Secondly, no one in Poland would expect
American private firms to go on donating medicines for an indeterminate
period. Incidentally, it is not unreasonable to expect that the Polish
government will feel some incentive to increase its allocation of
foreign exchange for purchases of pharmaceuticals when this program is
completed.
8. What is the source of the list of drugs which the Committee says
are needed in Poland?
The list has been built up from many Polish medical sources. The
capitalized items are those which both individual physicians and
Ministry of Health officials believe to be.most important,
9. How are the transportation and other costs to be covered?
Efforts will be made to raise the necessary funds from private
sources to reimburse the International Rescue Committee and CAI{C for
costs incurred in the program.
10*, My should the pharmaceutical industry bear the whole burden of
this program?
There is no one source of funds which conceivably could be made
available to purchase medicines on the scale needed for this program.
Furthermore, it is considerably less expensive for the industry to
donate the medicines than it would be for. anyone else to donate the
money to purchase theme
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