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I Saw Poland Betrayed: an American Ambassador Reports to the American People
"Ciechnowski reports that he was unable to see President Roosevelt"
- GenresHistoryPolandNonfiction
344 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1948
16 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
About the author
Arthur Bliss Lane
2 books1 followerArthur Bliss Lane (16 June 1894 – 12 August 1956) was a United States diplomat who served in Latin America and Europe. During his diplomatic career he dealt with the rise of a dictatorship in Nicaragua in the 1930s, World War II and its aftermath in Europe, and the rise of the Soviet-installed communist regime in Poland.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 9, 2018
Ah politics. Such sadness for so many people for so many years. An excellent paean to the people of Poland for having to hear how much of a friend the United States was, to their betrayal by the powers that be, since Yalta and Potsdam. And here we are in 2018, still playing the shell game. And so many innocent people, harassed, put to death, unable to have free elections, unable to live as they wanted, with the tacit agreement of the US government. Kudos to Ambassador Lane for retiring and then publishing this, validating his personal feeling about what SHOULD have happened in Poland.
July 1, 2022
Extremely captivating read - finished in two sittings. Great first hand account of Soviet negotiation tactics and American/British naivety. Important book for anyone wanting to understand how the Cold War could have been avoided.
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
August 16, 2017
Fantastic first-hand relation of the times in Poland between the warsaw uprising 1944 and the falisified elections in january 1947 wchich doomed Poland into 44 years of being soviet colony (or rather formalised it).
A slight different take on the intententions of westerns countries at Yalta and Potsdam conferences then it is usually depicted in polish histography.
The book is also a good set of facts on eastern european history that are either forgoten or altered during half century of soviet propaganda.
A slight different take on the intententions of westerns countries at Yalta and Potsdam conferences then it is usually depicted in polish histography.
The book is also a good set of facts on eastern european history that are either forgoten or altered during half century of soviet propaganda.
November 23, 2025
WERE THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONS GUILTY IN THE SOVIET TAKEOVER OF POLAND?
Arthur Bliss Lane (1894-1956) was a United States diplomat who served in Latin America and Europe; he was the U.S. Ambassador to Poland from 1944-1947.
He wrote in the Foreword to this 1948 book, “Immediately following the elections of January 19, 1947, Poland, I determined to resign my position as American Ambassador. My mission---to ensure that ‘free and unfettered elections’ should be held---had been a failure… I felt strongly that the facts which had brought about the tragedy of the Polish situation should be placed publicly on the record. This could not be done so long as I remained an official of the United States Government… My resignation was accepted… with the understanding of President Truman and … the Acting Secretary of State… that I would tell the story as I had seen it… If I have seemed to make excessive use of the first personal pronoun in this volume… it is because I have wished to emphasize that this is a first-hand and personal account of what I have seen and experienced: the consecutive steps in the formation of a puppet police state… Those broken promises of the Soviet Government and of its Polish puppet government are the basic causes of the Polish tragedy, the story of which is told, as I saw it, in the chapters which follow.”
He notes that in 1944, “I read, at the State Department, the messages our government had sent to Moscow in our attempt to aid the fighting Poles while there was still time. I read the evasive Soviet replies. I noted the final outcome. And, with a sense of discouragement, I … contin[ued] my study of my government’s recorded efforts to obtain from the Soviet Union guarantees which would insure justice to Poland, and to all liberated peoples, after the war… It was obvious that the British and American appeasement of Stalin had begun at Tehran.” (Pg. 33)
Of the Yalta Agreement, he comments, “My disagreement had a four-fold basis: First, the terms of the decision were of so general a nature that they would be susceptible of varying interpretations… Second, no provision was made for the supervision of the elections by the three Allies… Third, the United States Government had openly and irrevocably surrendered to the Soviet and British thesis that the Polish-Soviet frontier should follow the Curzon Line… Fourth, no provision was made for the safe return to Poland of the Polish Army abroad.” (Pg. 58)
He recounts, “During our early days in Warsaw even the word of our Polish friends was not needed to convince us of the terrorist methods employed by the Soviet Army and secret police… In addition to the terror created in Poland by the returning Red Army, the newly formed Polish Security Police… was making itself unpleasantly known.” (Pg. 129) He continues, “information kept pouring in… that a reign of terror was being imposed on the Polish people by the Security Police… By February 1946 … claimants to American citizenship were in jail, almost all… for the ‘crime’ of having once been members of the underground army clandestinely fighting the Nazis.” (Pg. 161)
He observes, “There is no doubt that the help furnished by UNRRA and other humanitarian organizations… created a great spiritual bond between the Polish people and Western civilization… [It] was a constant reminder to the Poles that the West had not forgotten their plight and that the West, especially the United States, was helping as in the past.” (Pg. 184) He laments “the loss of prestige suffered by the United States when we granted credits to a government which had not kept its word to us and which seized on our leniency as warrant for proceeding to even greater attacks on the freedom of its own citizens---and of our citizens.” (Pg. 197-198)
He recalls, “To me it seemed very significant that the United States Government had addressed notes to the Polish Government… before the elections, rather than after. Their timing demonstrated that even should the elections be fairly held and the ballots honestly tabulated and reported, we still could not feel that they could correctly represent the will of the electorate because of the repressive measures employed during the pre-election campaign.” (Pg. 237)
He states, “I could see no difference between Hitler’s and Stalin’s aims. Both were after world domination. I could not see the difference … between the methods of the two tyrants. They were exactly the same---suppression of personal liberty; terrorism by the police; sickening propaganda that the totalitarian state is democratic… [I] felt … that the United States was in danger of being brought into a war because of the imperialist ambition of a country seeking to dominate the world… I felt, with all humility, that out of my experience in Poland, I might accomplish some good by bringing the facts before the American people. My course was clear. I decided to resign.” (Pg. 241-242)
He summarizes, “Although the principal responsibility for Poland’s fate must be placed on the Nazi and Soviet governments, certainly the United States and Great Britain cannot escape a share in the tragic betrayal.” (Pg. 257) He concludes, “The United Nations Organization cannot conceivably accomplish its basic purpose… as long as it contains within itself an irreconcilable element which fights against the principles that are the life, the very soul, of the organization. As long as the democratic nations… hold firmly to the principle of equal justice for all, they need fear no nation, or groups of nations, outside their number… It is, therefore, the grave duty of the individual citizen, in every democratic nation, unceasingly to press upon it chosen representatives … the folly of political opportunism and the wisdom of fearlessness based on moral integrity.” (Pg. 264)
This book will interest those studying contemporary Polish political history.
Arthur Bliss Lane (1894-1956) was a United States diplomat who served in Latin America and Europe; he was the U.S. Ambassador to Poland from 1944-1947.
He wrote in the Foreword to this 1948 book, “Immediately following the elections of January 19, 1947, Poland, I determined to resign my position as American Ambassador. My mission---to ensure that ‘free and unfettered elections’ should be held---had been a failure… I felt strongly that the facts which had brought about the tragedy of the Polish situation should be placed publicly on the record. This could not be done so long as I remained an official of the United States Government… My resignation was accepted… with the understanding of President Truman and … the Acting Secretary of State… that I would tell the story as I had seen it… If I have seemed to make excessive use of the first personal pronoun in this volume… it is because I have wished to emphasize that this is a first-hand and personal account of what I have seen and experienced: the consecutive steps in the formation of a puppet police state… Those broken promises of the Soviet Government and of its Polish puppet government are the basic causes of the Polish tragedy, the story of which is told, as I saw it, in the chapters which follow.”
He notes that in 1944, “I read, at the State Department, the messages our government had sent to Moscow in our attempt to aid the fighting Poles while there was still time. I read the evasive Soviet replies. I noted the final outcome. And, with a sense of discouragement, I … contin[ued] my study of my government’s recorded efforts to obtain from the Soviet Union guarantees which would insure justice to Poland, and to all liberated peoples, after the war… It was obvious that the British and American appeasement of Stalin had begun at Tehran.” (Pg. 33)
Of the Yalta Agreement, he comments, “My disagreement had a four-fold basis: First, the terms of the decision were of so general a nature that they would be susceptible of varying interpretations… Second, no provision was made for the supervision of the elections by the three Allies… Third, the United States Government had openly and irrevocably surrendered to the Soviet and British thesis that the Polish-Soviet frontier should follow the Curzon Line… Fourth, no provision was made for the safe return to Poland of the Polish Army abroad.” (Pg. 58)
He recounts, “During our early days in Warsaw even the word of our Polish friends was not needed to convince us of the terrorist methods employed by the Soviet Army and secret police… In addition to the terror created in Poland by the returning Red Army, the newly formed Polish Security Police… was making itself unpleasantly known.” (Pg. 129) He continues, “information kept pouring in… that a reign of terror was being imposed on the Polish people by the Security Police… By February 1946 … claimants to American citizenship were in jail, almost all… for the ‘crime’ of having once been members of the underground army clandestinely fighting the Nazis.” (Pg. 161)
He observes, “There is no doubt that the help furnished by UNRRA and other humanitarian organizations… created a great spiritual bond between the Polish people and Western civilization… [It] was a constant reminder to the Poles that the West had not forgotten their plight and that the West, especially the United States, was helping as in the past.” (Pg. 184) He laments “the loss of prestige suffered by the United States when we granted credits to a government which had not kept its word to us and which seized on our leniency as warrant for proceeding to even greater attacks on the freedom of its own citizens---and of our citizens.” (Pg. 197-198)
He recalls, “To me it seemed very significant that the United States Government had addressed notes to the Polish Government… before the elections, rather than after. Their timing demonstrated that even should the elections be fairly held and the ballots honestly tabulated and reported, we still could not feel that they could correctly represent the will of the electorate because of the repressive measures employed during the pre-election campaign.” (Pg. 237)
He states, “I could see no difference between Hitler’s and Stalin’s aims. Both were after world domination. I could not see the difference … between the methods of the two tyrants. They were exactly the same---suppression of personal liberty; terrorism by the police; sickening propaganda that the totalitarian state is democratic… [I] felt … that the United States was in danger of being brought into a war because of the imperialist ambition of a country seeking to dominate the world… I felt, with all humility, that out of my experience in Poland, I might accomplish some good by bringing the facts before the American people. My course was clear. I decided to resign.” (Pg. 241-242)
He summarizes, “Although the principal responsibility for Poland’s fate must be placed on the Nazi and Soviet governments, certainly the United States and Great Britain cannot escape a share in the tragic betrayal.” (Pg. 257) He concludes, “The United Nations Organization cannot conceivably accomplish its basic purpose… as long as it contains within itself an irreconcilable element which fights against the principles that are the life, the very soul, of the organization. As long as the democratic nations… hold firmly to the principle of equal justice for all, they need fear no nation, or groups of nations, outside their number… It is, therefore, the grave duty of the individual citizen, in every democratic nation, unceasingly to press upon it chosen representatives … the folly of political opportunism and the wisdom of fearlessness based on moral integrity.” (Pg. 264)
This book will interest those studying contemporary Polish political history.
March 21, 2022
Arthur Bliss Lane was the American ambassador to Poland from 1944 to 1947. In this memoir he described how the United States, against his strong opposition, acquiesced in the Soviet establishment of a subservient Communist regime in that country. Roosevelt was committed to working with Stalin to both defeat Germany and build the postwar order. In his meeting with Roosevelt on November 20, 1944, Lane argued that the US, then at the height of its wartime strength, was in a position to insist on Polish independence. Roosevelt replied with annoyance, “Do you want me to go to war with Russia?” The Americans had no intention of doing so, and so had no leverage in postwar Poland.
This paperback edition was published by Western Islands, an imprint of the John Birch Society. It did not include the appendix of the original edition which contained the texts of diplomatic notes between Poland and the United States.
This paperback edition was published by Western Islands, an imprint of the John Birch Society. It did not include the appendix of the original edition which contained the texts of diplomatic notes between Poland and the United States.
December 11, 2009
I just finished, "I Saw Poland Betrayed" by Arthur Bliss Lane. It was a summary of his time as Ambassador in Poland, he resigned his position in protest. Historically speaking it is interesting, but the lessons one can draw from it are almost totally about morals, the morals of 1946. Technology has so transformed life in the intervening time that totalitarian regimes can no longer operate with the scale and latitude of the Soviet Union. I think from that perspective it is limited in its' appeal. Lane attempts to outrage the reader as if to crusade against the injustices of the cold war Russian state yet even he realizes that, short of war, the Soviets respect nothing but naked power.
October 18, 2021
The author goes into a lot of detail on how America betrayed Poland and the American people by not standing up against the Communist USSR. America and Britain were supposed to let people have self determination in how they want to live, what government and country they want to be, America went along with the communists and allowed the communists to take whatever country that they wanted. The author explains this in his first hand knowledge as he was an ambassador to Poland.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews