BUSH IN POLAND : Presidential Luncheon--’Amazing Event’ Full of Surprises for Its Guests

“This is pretty strange,” whispered Jana Onyszkiewicz. “Some of these people had us arrested--now we’re eating with them.”

Onyszkiewicz, the wife of the Solidarity spokesman, Janusz, was not alone in her amazement at the guest list and seating arrangement for lunch at the Warsaw home of U.S. Ambassador John R. Davis Jr. Invited by President Bush were 80 guests, including Communist Party leader Wojciech Jaruzelski and the top levels of both the Communist Party and opposition Solidarity leadership.

In the view of at least one American official present, it was “an amazing event,” and one that revealed the layers of complexity and strong emotions bound up in the Polish political world.

The feelings were evident in off-the-cuff (and unexpected) responses to a toast by President Bush from Jaruzelski and Bronislaw Geremek, Solidarity’s senior strategist.

Bush’s toast, touching on a theme repeated throughout the first day of his trip to Poland, saluted not just Solidarity and the government leadership but the reform process in Poland.

Toast ‘to People of Poland’

“We are aware,” Bush said, “of the many difficulties and the economic pressures that lie ahead. And your challenge is to rise above the mistrust, to bring the Polish people together for a common purpose. The United States will stand with Poland; we will support Poland’s hopeful mission, unparalleled in your history.” Bush’s toast was to “the people of Poland.”

Jaruzelski then responded, noting that he had been “taken by surprise” by the invitation to the ambassador’s residence.

“I consider as a significant fact,” he said, “that it is here at the residence of the U.S. ambassador we could meet in such a pluralistic company. What is more, we were able to meet in a friendly atmosphere. And I believe we have felt well together.

“One other personal reflection for me: I have lived perhaps 50 or 80 meters away from here for 16 years, and it is for the first time that I have come to this building and this residence. I think it is also a sign of the times.”

Geremek, his response similarly a surprise to White House staffers, then concluded.

“Poland is still divided,” he said, “but it is possible that what is taking place right now is actually taking place, that together we have the representatives of Solidarity, the opposition and the authorities. We feel that what is taking place now, the political and economic reform . . . is in the interest of all Poland and not just one particular side.”

The words of President Bush, Geremek said, “that the United States will support the reforms taking place in Poland, are the words that we were hoping for.”

“And for that, let me propose a toast to the President of the United States and the United States of America.”