FLASHPOINT: POLAND

Hitler invaded Poland from the west in the fall of 1939. Several days later Stalin invaded Poland from the east. The two powers divided Poland between them, thus beginning 50 years of oppression of the Polish people by totalitarian regimes. The once great empire vanished from the political map for the next five years. England and France had a treaty with Poland and declared war on Germany as a result of the invasion.

As the war drew to a close in 1945 with the Russian armies steamrolling the Germans from the east, it was clear that the Polish people were only exchanging one occupying force for another. The Soviets displaced the Germans in Poland and had no intentions of very leaving once they had "liberated" the Western half. The Big Three - Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, divided up Europe at Yalta, drawing lines on a map - lines that meant freedom for some and slavery for millions of others. The Polish People were not consulted.

The results of Yalta and the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe put Churchill in a difficult position. England had declared war on Germany for the same reason, after all. Churchill had drawn up a plan to make war on the Soviets, but it was a pipe dream. The world had just gone through the most cataclysmic event in the history if mankind. Sixty Million people worldwide had died in the war, hundreds of millions were displaced. The world was reeling from the violence - another war was unthinkable.

Besides, while America and Russia had risen from the ashes of WWII as the new world superpowers, the British Empire was finished as a force. The empire had been in steady decline for decades, and the war was the final nail in the coffin of British Imperialism. England was broke, and needed to focus on rebuilding its Island home.

All of this is in the history books. You leaned it in High School (Well, maybe not if you attended a public school. But you know all about recycling and gay, bi, trans-gendered rights). What is less known is how close the West (The United States) came to declaring war against the Soviet Union in the early 1980s over - you guessed it - Poland.

THE "HOLY ALLIANCE"

Ronald Reagan met Pope John Paul II for the first time in 1982. At that meeting they spoke for almost an hour, alone in the Vatican Library. Israel had invaded Lebanon the day before, but the focus of their conversation was on a subject much closer to the hearts of both men - the Communist domination of Eastern Europe.

Reagan and the Pope believed that a free, non-communist Poland would be an arrow through the heart of Soviet oppression. They agreed to a secret campaign to undermine and hasten the downfall of the Soviet Empire. Regan's National Security Adviser said, "This was one of the great secret alliances of all time."

Regan and John Paul II had something else in common - both had survived an assassination attempt - attempts made only six weeks apart - and both believed that they had been spared by God because they were destined for a special mission on Earth.

DARK HOURS FOR POLAND AND THE WORLD

Solidarity was the key to the downfall of the Soviet grip on Poland. In 1981 General Wojciech Januzelski declared Martial Law. Poland's communications with the free world were cut, and 6,000 Solidarity leaders were detained. Hundreds were charged with treason, nine were killed. The Union was banned and Lech Walesa was taken into custody and locked up in a remote hunting lodge. Polish security forces took to the streets.

The world was once again on the brink of war - over Poland. The American Armed Forces had been decimated by President' Carter's cuts in military funding, but the military buildup under President Regan was already well underway. Regan was prepared to go to war if the Soviet Union invaded Poland to crush Solidarity. American Troops stationed in Europe were aware that something was up as they were put on alert status.

Crushing sanctions were imposed on Poland, but by 1984 it became apparent that they were only hurting the citizens, and were mostly lifted. The country was flooded with communications equipment - radios, printing presses, and a network of Catholic Priests carried messages to Solidarity leaders in hiding. Technology, food and cultural exchange was withheld from Moscow in retaliation for continuing oppression in Poland. By 1985 it was clear that the Communist government of Poland had failed to suppress Solidarity.

An inch at a time the Soviets were forced to succumb to the moral, economic and political pressure imposed by Regan and the Pope. Political prisoners were released and Walesa's trial on crimes against the regime was abandoned. The country's economy collapsed. President Reagan lifted U.S. sanctions on Poland when Warsaw pledged to open a dialogue with the church. Four months later Pope John Paul II traveled across Poland, demanding human rights and praising Solidarity - to the cheers and adulation of millions. Solidarity was legalized on April 5, 1990, and in December, nine years after he was arrested and his labor union banned, Lech Walesa became president of Poland.