Letter to the Editor

Abstract

July 27, 2022To the Editor:Back in 1995 and 1999, I authored two articles in The Polish Review on Poland's effort to gain entry into the NATO Alliance, the Polish American Congress’ key role in this endeavor, and my involvement from 1993 to 1999 in this ultimately successful enterprise.1Here is a brief “postscript” on my experience. It comes at a timely moment, in connection with NATO's, and Poland's, response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In sharing my story with your readers, I am well aware that other ordinary citizens who worked for Poland's entry into NATO likely did far more significant things. Unfortunately, I have not seen any reference to this in print. So here's my story “for the record.”It all began in December 1997 when I got a telephone call from the Polish Consul General in Chicago, Ryszard Sarkowicz. He said he had been in contact with Wisconsin State Senator Richard Grobschmidt, whose district included many Polish Americans. Senator Grobschmidt agreed to submit a resolution supporting Poland's entry into NATO and to get it approved in both houses of the state legislature.In fact, Senator Grobschmidt, a Democrat, and his colleagues, Democrats Roger Breske, Brian Burke, and Kevin Shibilski, and Republicans Gary Drzewiecki and Robert Welch had already authored such a resolution, joined by thirteen concurring sponsors in the State Assembly, Democrats Peter Bock, Barbara Gronemus, Donald Hasenohrl, James Kreuser, Walter Kunicki, Jeff Plale, Rosemary Potter, and John Ryba, and Republicans John Dobyns, John Gard, Joseph Handrick, Alvin Ott, and Scott Walker.The resolution had been referred to the Senate committee on Economic Development, Housing, and Government Operations. It gave six reasons for approval—most notably that Poland, as a free and democratic country, was indeed prepared to be a contributing NATO member, that it was in the U.S's national interest to maintain and expand NATO to ensure the peace, stability, and prosperity of post-communist Central Europe, and that NATO's mission would be enhanced by doing so.The Senate committee scheduled a hearing on the resolution for January 7, 1998, in Madison, Wisconsin's capital. In my chat with the Consul General, he asked that I speak in its favor. At first, I was skeptical—amending the NATO treaty to admit Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic was the responsibility of the U.S. Senate in Washington, DC, not the state legislature in Madison. When the Consul persisted, I agreed to go. I then asked a friend, Terry Witkowski, a Milwaukee City government official and president of the influential Milwaukee Society lodge of the Polish National Alliance fraternal, to accompany me.My testimony took all of about forty seconds! The Committee Chair, Senator Gwen Moore of Milwaukee, stopped me in mid-sentence and said, “Thank you Professor. I believe we are now prepared to vote on this resolution.” It was then approved by a 4–0 vote. Senate passage came days later, on January 15, 1998.But Assembly approval was blocked due to a squabble between the Democrat-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled Assembly. I learned this from Senator Grobschmidt who was pessimistic about any early settlement of the dispute. But he then encouraged me to call the Republican Speaker of the Assembly on the matter. I did so and reached Rep. Gard (the Speaker's deputy) and asked why the Assembly was refusing to even take up the bill. At this point, Rep. Gard asked me my name and where I lived! I gladly assured him I was a Wisconsin resident. Then I repeated my request, and in the strongest language I could muster.Rep. Gard promised to call me back on the matter and did so just twenty minutes later, saying that the Assembly would indeed bring up the resolution the next week. On March 25, the Assembly did so, approving by a concurring resolution.The joint resolution was then immediately forwarded to the President of the United States, the President pro tem of the U.S. Senate, the two U.S. Senators from Wisconsin, Herbert Kohl and Russell Feingold, and Poland's ambassador to the U.S.On April 30, 1998, the U.S. Senate approved extending NATO membership to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic by a vote of 80–19. (67 votes were needed to amend the NATO treaty.)2 Both U.S. Senators from Wisconsin voted for NATO expansion.3 Then, and only after all sixteen NATO members had formally approved expansion, the three states joined NATO in April 1999, the fiftieth anniversary of its founding.It had taken six long, tough years of lobbying to achieve this breakthrough; later expansions of NATO in 2004, 2009, 2018, and 2020 have since gone swiftly and smoothly. In 2022, with Finland and Sweden seeking to join NATO in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the alliance was on the verge of including thirty-two member states with over 950 million inhabitants.4Sincerely,