An American who deserves to be remembered for his service to Poland

Michael E. Hammond was recently honored at the Embassy of Poland in Washington, D.C. by order of the president of the of Poland in recognition of his “outstanding achievements in supporting democratic changes” in the country.

His contribution to history should be not only recognized, but also remembered. Set your way-back machine to the mid-1980s when the Soviet Union and the United States were at the height of the Cold War.

{mosads}Hammond teamed up with Liz Wasiutynski, the U.S. representative for Nszz Solidarnosc, or “Solidarity,” the first Polish labor union that did not fall under communist control. They began building a bipartisan group of ten Republican and ten Democratic senators, led by Sens. Steve Symms (R-Idaho) and Bob Dixon (D-Ill.). In 1987, due to Hammond’s efforts, Wasiutynski, Jim Bond of Sen. Bob Kasten’s staff and others, the U.S. granted $1 million to the group.

In a public relations ploy, Solidarity spent the money on ambulances. Luckily for the long-term freedom and prosperity of Poland, another opportunity presented itself after Hammond convinced Congressman Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) to push for another $1 million for the group.

Ironically, when Congress voted Solidarity the second million dollars – fearing that the funds would cause increased conflict with the communist, Russian-backed government of Poland – the U.S. Department of State tried to convince Solidarity’s leader, Lech Walesa, not to take the money. Much to the U.S. State Department’s chagrin, Walesa laughed and said, “Of course we are going to take the money!” 

Hammond, meanwhile, was ramping up the pressure on Solidarity, both publicly and privately, to act more decisively with strikes and protests. Hammond was quoted by the Russian paper Izvestia, and the quote made its way into papers around the globe stating: “I see Solidarity as our Contras in Eastern Europe.”

Everyone’s desire for mass strikes and demonstrations was balanced by the fact that the Soviets had thousands of tanks in Poland; and the Poles remember their demonstrations in the early 1980’s being ruthlessly put down by those same tanks.

But Hammond had a plan to help with that problem. He penned an ultimatum, voted into law by the U.S. Senate on the 1989 Defense Department authorization bill. “It is the sense of the Senate that if Poland arrests or harms any member or leader of Solidarity, the U.S. will remove all aid to Poland and discontinue all trade,” the resolution said.

This language became law and was quickly seen, as Hammond anticipated and hoped, as the U.S. government protecting members of the Solidarity Union with a credible and regime-destabilizing threat to substantially cut off Poland’s access to hard currency, which was what Poland used to keep its ruling class, the Nomenklatura, living well and in power.

As the news of the “Sense of the Senate” traveled across Poland, average citizens of Poland joined Solidarity, and Solidarity’s membership and political power exploded. The rationale was, members of Solidarity were protected, so if you join, you too are protected.

Shortly thereafter, the strikes and demonstrations that Hammond had been pressing Solidarity for – “our Contra’s in Eastern Europe” – became a reality.

It was into this backdrop that in August of 1988, Hammond arrived to attend and speak at conference put on by Solidarity and a group called Peace and Freedom in a church in Nowa Huta, Poland.

As Hammond was waiting to speak, he was inexplicably physically thrown to his knees on the floor of the church. He saw a vision of God’s hand sweep across the map of Europe, changing the face of the Earth. For almost three decades, Hammond kept silent about this experience.

Because Hammond was widely known as the author of the Sense of the Senate language offering U.S. protection to Solidarity members, it carried extra weight when Hammond spoke in Nowa Huta and called for the overthrow of General Jariselski’s government.

During the Nowa Huta conference, Solidarity went on strike in Gdansk, which triggered a National State of Emergency, otherwise known as martial law.

Hammond was sprinted out of his InterContinental Hotel by Solidarity operatives, who stashed him in a safe house. He was a real live example of a political human shield – the Polish government would not dare crack down while Hammond and five other U.S. Senate staffers were in Poland, not with the Senate’s sense of the Senate threat hanging out there.

The bloody, tank-driven crackdown never came. The strikes spread, and Poland ultimately became free.

It is for these reasons that Michael E. Hammond deserves to be both honored and remembered.

Dan Perrin served as legislative assistant to Michael E. Hammond when he served as the general counsel to the U.S. Senate Steering Committee during the Cold War.

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