Walesa Hails Reagan at Daylong Seminar

Former Polish President Lech Walesa launched a three-week tour of the United States here Monday by praising former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s role in the fall of Communism, saying, “he was favored by the muse” of history.

Poland owes her freedom partly to Reagan, Walesa told a crowd of nearly 400 people gathered at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for a daylong conference on “The Reagan Legacy.”

“His policy supporting the freedom movement in Central and Eastern Europe provided us with a very strong backing” for the Solidarity movement that eventually ended Communist rule in Poland, Walesa said through an interpreter.

Walesa also praised Reagan’s devotion to “a few simple rules: human rights, democracy, freedom of speech . . . and his conviction that it is not the people who are there for the sake of the state, but that the state is there for the sake of the citizens.”

Earlier in the day, panels of Reagan scholars, advisors and journalists tried to dissect the eight-year reign of one of America’s most popular presidents.

Pundits ranging from veteran TV journalist Sander Vanocur to former Reagan Deputy Chief of Staff Michael K. Deaver touched on Reagan’s passionate beliefs, his sense of humor and the uncanny connection he made with much of the American public.

In a speech sent by satellite, “60 Minutes” anchor Mike Wallace recalled Reagan’s skills as “the great communicator,” citing the moment Reagan burst into politics with a galvanizing speech on behalf of Sen. Barry Goldwater’s presidential bid in 1964.

Wallace also noted two darker corners of the Reagan legacy--the Iran-Contra affair and a national deficit that had swollen to more than $2.6 trillion when he left office in 1988.

But it was Reagan’s battle of wills with what he called “the evil empire” of the Soviet Union, his summits with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the eventual collapse of Communism in Europe and the Soviet Union that dominated Monday’s conference.

Walesa referred to a joke that Reagan delivered into a microphone for a sound check in 1983 that eventually was broadcast worldwide: “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”

Walesa said Monday, “People thought it was unfunny, but I’m of the opposite opinion, that it was not only a good joke, but the words were also prophetic.

“Today, my great wish is that a president of the United States would come to the microphone and announce the establishment of the United States of Europe,” Walesa said. “That would not be a bad joke either.”

Afterward, Walesa told reporters he will meet with President Clinton on June 3 to discuss the lingering instability in the former Soviet Union.

But Walesa said he did not come to ask the United States for specific help or favors.

“I am not an official government representative,” he said. “I’m seeing President Clinton as an old friend.”