Reagan told him: “Cap, I know that, and we must never be in this position again. We must regain our military strength quickly if we want to secure any kind of peace.” Caspar Weinberger, In the Arena (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2001), 280.
51. Interview with Caspar Weinberger, October 10, 2002. Weinberger used some of this same language in very vaguely recalling this incident a month later at a conference in Washington. His statement was quite unclear, to the point that I was probably the only one in the room to fully comprehend what he was alluding to. Weinberger speaking at the conference, “Reagan’s War and the War on Terrorism,” hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, November 13, 2002.
52. Interview with Caspar Weinberger, October 10, 2002.
53. Interview with Caspar Weinberger, October 10, 2002.
54. “The Pope and the President: A key adviser reflects on the Reagan Administration,” interview with Bill Clark, Catholic World Reporter, November 1999.
55. Bill Clark, “President Reagan and the Wall,” Address to the Council of National Policy, San Francisco, California, March 2000, 7–8.
56. Interview with Bill Clark, August 24, 2001.
57. Interview with Bill Clark, July 17, 2003.
58. Alas, in April 2005, immediately after the death of Pope John Paul II, Clark talked to one media source. He gave an exclusive interview to Newsmax, which was totally ignored by the mainstream press. In promoting the exclusive, Newsmax said that Clark had revealed for the first time that “Reagan told the pope he would use military force and go to war if Russia attempted to invade Poland.” I contacted Clark to discuss the article; he offered what he noted was a key clarification: “We hadn’t actually prepared to go to war. That stretches it. More accurately, we were prepared to recommend the use of force. There’s an important difference.” Interview with Bill Clark, April 6, 2005. Newsmax reporter Phil Brennan quoted Clark accurately in the article; it was the promotional material that went a bit beyond what Clark said he intended. The promotional material appeared at Newsmax.com on April 5, 2005. It ran with an accompanying article by Brennan, titled, “Adviser: Reagan Threatened War Over Poland,” April 5, 2005, Newsmax.com.
59. Interview with Ed Meese, September 9, 2002.
60. Reagan, “Excerpts From a Telephone Conversation With Pope John Paul II About the Situation in Poland,” December 14, 1981.
61. Documents located in ES, NSC, HSF: Records, Vatican: Pope John Paul II, RRL, Box 41, Folders “Cables 1 of 2” and 8107378–8200051.
62. December 29, 1981 letter from Ronald Reagan to Pope John Paul II. Document is located at Reagan Library, ES, NSC, HSF: Records, Vatican: Pope John Paul II, RRL, Box 41, Folder 8107378–820051. Document was declassified on July 18, 2000.
63. Reagan, An American Life, 303.
64. Ibid., 301.
65. Pipes, Vixi, 170–72.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. Genrikh Borovik, “Plot Against Poland,”
69. Pipes, Vixi, 172–73.
70. Reagan, “Interview With the President,” December 23, 1981.
71. Among other examples, see Reagan, “Proclamation 4891—Solidarity Day,” January 20, 1982.
72. Reagan, “Address to the Nation About Christmas and the Situation in Poland,” December 23, 1981.
73. Michael Deaver, Behind the Scenes (New York: William Morrow, 1988), 142–43.
74. Y. Nilov, “No Scruples…,” Novoye Vremya, January 1, 1982, 8–9, published as “Weinberger’s Remarks on Poland, Church Assailed,” in FBIS, FBIS-SOV-19-JAN-82, January 19, 1982, F1–3.
75. Valentin Zorin, “Moscow Viewpoint,” December 27, 1981, published as “Zorin Commentary,” in FBIS, FBIS-SOV-30-DEC-81, December 30, 1981, F3–5.
76. Moscow TASS, “Imperialist Interference Rebuffed,” December 29, 1981, published as “Zolnierz Wolnosci on Reagan Address,” in FBIS, FBIS-SOV-30-DEC-81, December 30, 1981, F2–3.
77. Ibid.
78. Interview with Barbara Dudek, conducted by Margie Dudek, November 2004.
79. Interview with Jan Pompowski, October 31, 2005, translated by Tomasz Pompowski.
80. Interview with Radek Sikorski, March 3, 2003.
81. Dispatch by special correspondent “UL,” “Impudent Ultimatum,” Rude Pravo, December 28, 1981, 7, published as “Events in Knurow Described,” in FBIS, FBIS-EE-31-DEC81, December 31, 1981, D6.
82. Reagan, “Address to the Nation About Christmas and the Situation in Poland,” December 23, 1981.
83. Reagan, An American Life, 304.
84. I believe that the letter was a combination of two drafts, one drafted by Richard Pipes (which formed the opening paragraphs) and one drafted by the State Department. See Pipes, Vixi, 172–73.
85. December 23, 1981 letter from Ronald Reagan to Leonid Brezhnev, ES, NSC, HSF: Records, USSR: GSB (8190210), Box 38, RRL. Document was declassified on October 22, 1999.
86. December 23, 1981 letter, 1.
87. December 23, 1981 letter, 2.
88. December 23, 1981 letter, 2–3.
89. December 23, 1981 letter, 3.
90. Quite the contrary, the founder of the Soviet state had different means for marking the Christmas holiday. On December 25, 1919, Bolshevik godfather Vladimir Lenin had ordered: “To put up with ‘Nikola’ [the religious holiday commemorating the relics of St. Nikolai] would be stupid—the entire Cheka must be on the alert to see to it that those who do not show up for work because of ‘Nikola’ are shot.” Cited by Alexander N. Yakovlev, A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002), 157.
91. Reagan, An American Life, 304.
92. Ibid., 305.
93. The internal response is located at the Reagan Library in ES, NSC, HSF: Records, 93. The internal response is located at the Reagan Library in ES, NSC, HSF: Records, 8190212. See Reagan, An American Life, 305.
94. Ibid., 305.
95. Reagan, “Statement on U.S. Measures Taken Against the Soviet Union Concerning its Involvement in Poland,” December 29, 1981.
96. These are the words of reporter Aleksandr Mozgovoy in Sovetskaya Rossiya, quoted by TASS, January 12, 1982, published as “U.S. Slander,” in FBIS, FBIS-SOV-12-JAN-82, January 12, 1982, F5. Throughout subsequent years, TASS itself would dub the Reagan administration’s efforts in Poland a “subversive policy.” Among others, see Aleksandr Bovin, “A Face Not a Policy,”
For Communist bloc sources on Reagan exploiting martial law as a “pretext” to undermine Communism, see Sofia BTA, by BTA observer Krasimir Drumev, “Illusory and Dangerous Course,” December 30, 1981, published as “Reagan’s Course: ‘Illusory and Dangerous,’” in FBIS, FBIS-EE-31-DEC-81, December 30, 1981, C1; Prague Domestic Service, commentary by Editor Antonin Kostka, December 30, 1981, published as “U.S. Anti-Soviet Sanctions Further Denounced,” in FBIS, FBIS-EE-31-DEC-81, December 30, 1981, D1; Prague Domestic Service, commentary by Correspondent Michal Stasz, December 30, 1981, published as “Only America Will Suffer,” in FBIS, FBIS-EE-31-DEC-81, December 30, 1981, D2–3; Bratislava Pravda in Slovak, by Milan Rusko, “American Hegemonism, Reagan Version,” December 28, 1981, published as “Reagan Message Criticized,” in FBIS, FBIS-EE- 31-DEC-81, December 31, 1981, D3; Moscow TASS statement, December 30, 1981, published as “Reagan’s ‘Discriminatory Measures’ Condemned,” in FBIS, FBIS-SOV-30-DEC-81, December 30, 1981, F2; and Zdenek Porybny, “Pressure Will Not Succeed,” Rude Pravo, December 27, 1981, 7, published as “U.S. Declares Economic
