Book Review : Former Polish Diplomat’s Apologia Has Hollow Ring

The Liberation of One by Romuald Spasowski (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: $24.95)

In the second half of December, 1981, a few days after the imposition of martial law in Poland, American television viewers and newspaper readers were treated to a somewhat unusual spectacle of President Reagan carrying an umbrella and escorting a couple from the White House to a waiting car. This special gesture was reserved for Romuald Spasowski, who, until Dec. 19, 1981, was the Polish ambassador to the United States and who defected on that day in protest against military rule in Poland.

Spasowski, who was sentenced to death in absentia for treason by the Polish military regime, has remained in the United States and apparently decided to publish his memoirs. According to his publisher, Spasowski, a “skillful raconteur,” was to reveal in an “unprecedented expose” the instruments and techniques of Soviet domination of Poland, and also offer candid glimpses not only of various Polish Communist leaders but also of such world figures as Juan Peron, Fidel Castro, Indira Gandhi and President John F. Kennedy.

At first glance, it appeared indeed a highly promising volume. After all, it is rather rare for a high-ranking diplomat from a Soviet-Bloc country to defect to the West, and especially someone like Spasowski, by his own admission a devoted Communist for 40 years and twice Polish ambassador to the United States, in addition to holding similar posts in Argentina and India.

Alas, the standard exaggerated publishers’ claims notwithstanding, seldom has there been such a huge gap between promise and fulfillment. Instead of an “unprecedented expose” and a series of intimate portraits of world leaders, we are treated to an overlong, boring apologia pro vita mea in which the author primarily gives vent to his overwhelming urge to purge himself of his Communist Party membership. The few accounts describing his meetings with major world figures are not only shockingly brief but also cast serious doubt on his powers of observation.

Altogether, the volume is a pathetic exercise in what is known in the Communist jargon as samokritika (self-criticism). Hard as I tried, I could not generate any feeling of sympathy for the author who, despite his frequently professed doubts and torments, has managed to serve Communist Poland faithfully for close to four decades. The fact that he decided to embrace the faith at the end of World War II was not particularly surprising: Tens of thousands of young idealistic Poles joined him in that act. However, many of them saw the light early and began to leave the Party in droves in the wake of the multiple domestic crises in Poland--in 1956, 1968, 1970, 1976, and especially during the “Solidarity” period of 1980-1981.

For some reason, Spasowski did not follow them, hanging on to the regime’s coattails until December, 1981, when in the safety of Washington he decided to “choose freedom.” These facts speak for themselves, and the author’s frenetic expressions of mea culpa sound a hollow ring.