Poles Hail Reagan as Hero Near Shipyard Where Reform Was Born

Ronald Reagan got a hero’s welcome from a crowd of 7,000 people Saturday, and a priest who is a friend of Solidarity founder Lech Walesa gave the former President a saber for helping to “chop off the head of communism.”

Torrential rain greeted Reagan and Walesa as they prepared to address the crowd in front of the monument to shipyard workers, about 150 feet from the gate of the Gdansk shipyard.

It was in the shipyard that workers triggered the beginning of a revolution in 1980 that a decade later led to the toppling of Communist regimes throughout the East Bloc.

Reagan waited out the downpour by touring the hall where the Solidarity-Communist accord was signed on Aug. 31, 1980, legalizing the first independent labor union in the East Bloc.

“You have triggered fast changes in the political map of Central and Eastern Europe,” he said in an address to the crowd.

The crowd chanted, “Thank you, thank you,” and sang “Sto Lat” (May He Live 100 years), sung only in honor of the most popular Polish leaders.

Father Henryk Jankowski, formerly Walesa’s parish priest, presented Reagan with the saber during a meeting in the parish house of St. Brigida’s Church.

“I am giving you the saber for helping us to chop off the head of communism,” Jankowski told the former U.S. President, who earned the respect of Poles for his firm opposition to communism.