Obama’s Public Diplomacy Katabasis in Poland
President Obama may very well kiss the Polish American vote good bye after committing yet another public diplomacy blunder which gave Vice President Biden, U.S. Ambassador to Poland Lee A. Feinstein and some Congressional Democrats plenty of reasons to be pulling their hair out in utter frustration over his insensitive behavior toward an important U.S. ally.
Biden and Feinstein, who have a much greater appreciation of history and diplomatic protocol than the President, had pushed hard to get him to agree to attend Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s state funeral in Krakow last Sunday. They briefly succeeded in their efforts but then the cloud of ash from the Icelandic volcano disrupted international air travel in Europe. Obama may have had a reasonable explanation for cancelling his plane trip due to the ash cloud in the atmosphere. But in a display of unheard of diplomatic insensitivity, he allowed himself to be photographed playing golf on the same day as the Polish President’s body was being buried at the Wawel Castle in Krakow.
By his actions last Sunday, Obama created a public diplomacy disaster for America in Poland and among the Polish American electorate. Meanwhile, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, who had flown by plane from Moscow to attend the funeral, showed that he and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin can be real masters in shaping public opinion in a situation that could have had very bad repercussions for Russia and Russian-Polish relations. If anything, the death of President Kaczynski and other Polish leaders in Russia in the plane crash near Katyn, the place where Stalin’s secret police murdered thousands of Polish military officers during World War II, led to the strengthening of Polish-Russian ties due to outstanding public relations moves by both Putin and Medvedev.
This was not the first U.S. public diplomacy blunder vis-a-vis Poland since the Obama administration took office. Last September, President Obama deprived Poland of the U.S. missile defense system which the Polish government saw as the only effective military guarantee of America’s commitment to defend their country’s sovereignty against threats from Russia’s autocratic leaders. Obama announced his decision on September 17, the anniversary of Poland’s invasion by the Soviet Union in 1939 under the terms of Stalin’s secret agreement with Hitler which led to the division of the country between the two dictators.
It’s likely that the timing of the White House missile shield announcement was influenced by clever diplomatic suggestions from the Russian Foreign Ministry. Obama’s goal was to get Moscow to help him in dealing with Iran — help which he has not received and is not likely to get — and to sign the new arms control agreement with the Kremlin.
The arms agreement was indeed signed recently by President Obama and President Medvedev in Prague, the Czech Republic. But from the public diplomacy perspective, it was a very curious choice of a location for the U.S.-Russian arms control summit. By bringing the two leaders to Prague, the Russians managed to send a subtle signal, and perhaps a warning, to East and Central Europeans that the United States does not have a very long historical memory about the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The subtle message from the Kremlin was that just as it happened at the end of World War II, Russia and the U.S. can always find common ground at the expense of the defense and security needs of Eastern and Central Europe.
Many Poles interpret Obama’s actions as a further proof that he knows little about Poland’s history and even less about public diplomacy. While French President Sarkozy and German Chancellor Merkel also cancelled their plane trips to Poland, they did not participate in any public entertainment or sports events on the day of President Kaczynski’s funeral.
Assuming there were good safety reason for not making a plane trip to Poland, there were other options available to President Obama. He could have attended a special memorial mass at a Polish American church or visited the Polish Embassy in Washington. He did not, and one wonders whether public diplomacy experts at the White House, the State Department or the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw have made any recommendations. Even if the President of the United States lacks the necessary knowledge of history and diplomacy because of the poor level of education in American schools, there should have been at least one highly paid U.S. government bureaucrat to issue a warning to the President or his White House staff. Perhaps someone did and was ignored. We simply don’t know at this point. President Bush, who like Obama had also received poor education in world history, at least knew — or perhaps someone on his staff had told him — that it would not be a good idea after 9/11 to play golf while American soldiers are being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The terrible political and diplomatic damage from Obama’s insensitivity toward Poland, Israel and other U.S. allies has been done and cannot be easily reversed. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt betrayed Poland during World War II, just before the 1944 presidential elections he had himself photographed with Polish American leaders in front of the map of Poland showing the country’s eastern frontier lands which he had already secretly promised to Stalin in exchange for the Soviet dictator’s vague promise to help with the war with Japan — the help that Stalin could not and would not give if it did not serve his own interests and that was not needed.
It’s doubtful that the Polish Americans can be fooled again, especially since the Obama White House and President Obama himself lack FDR’s sophistication in manipulating public opinion, although they certainly share his naive trust in Russia’s autocratic leaders. In fact, Obama is being manipulated by Putin and Medvedev. They are far more clever and sophisticated than the U.S. President when it comes to the knowledge and political use of history, public diplomacy and public opinion. The late President Kaczynski understood President Obama’s weak grasp of history. Shortly after the White House announced its decision to pull the missile defense system from Poland, the Polish President sat next to President Barack Obama at a luncheon in New York where world leaders were gathered for the UN session of the General Assembly. During his meeting with Barack Obama, President Kaczynski gave him a copy of Alex Storozynski’s book about Tadeusz Kosciuszko: The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution, Polish Press Agency reported. President Obama’s copy of The Peasant Prince had an inscription from the author which said: “To President Obama, May Kosciuszko inspire you to learn more about Poland, the country whose motto is, For Your Freedom and Ours.â€
As a result of the Kremlin’s brilliant public relations strategy and Obama’s failure to grasp the importance of historical symbolism, Poland and Russia may develop closer ties while U.S.-Polish relations will weaken. While there is nothing wrong with Poland and Russia getting along better, Poland should not be forced to make painful and unnecessary compromises with the Kremlin simply because the U.S. has a president with a naive worldview reminiscent of Franklin Roosevelt’s assessment of Stalin.
See the link below how the Polish media has reacted to President Obama’s faux pas.
Warsaw Business Journal – Online Portal – wbj.pl
Further comment from TedLipien.com:
Polish media was upset not so much by Obama’s decision not to fly to Poland for President Kaczynski’s funeral as by his choice of using free time Sunday, the day of the funeral, to play golf. This was yet another public diplomacy disaster for Obama in Poland. Russia’s President Medvedev flew by plane to Poland to attend the funeral. Last year President Obama announced his decision to remove the planned U.S. missile defense system in Poland on the anniversary of the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland.
8 users commented in " Obama’s Sunday Golf Game May Cost Him Polish American Vote "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI think Americans are a whole lot less superstitious than Poles, by which I mean they are less likely to lionize dead politicians. Before his death, Kaczynski was just another office holder whose star was on the wane. He was no prize package, as far as the majority of Poles were concerned. Occupied chiefly with securing another term, whipping up the most backward elements within Polish society in a vain attempt to legitimate his own rule (in this he was hardly alone among modern Polish politicians). Kaczynski had a great deal invested in the project of demonzing others, and the Polish people as a whole suffered for it.
In my opinion the fact is that US treat Poland as a third-role ally.
I also want to add one more thing that is essentiall for Poles and US “forgot” about. This is the case of waiving the visas for Poland’s citisens – problem that still exist istead of completely change in Poland’s internall and externall situation.
As Poles feel, US still belevie that all the Poles are laborers that only dream about becoming the part of American society. Maybe part of it was true in 80s and before when standard monthly remuneration in Poland was worth 30 $ and less but now there are many more possibilities for Poles for alternative routes for emigration and – in fact, US-route is not the only, and not even best-possible, way of action.
The point is that if Poland is one of …(how many answer yourself) US’s real allies in all the military campaigns around the world, the same people that fight arm-in-arm with US soldiers cannot visit the US soil without valid visa what means – without grace of US immigration clerks.
All over the world are other nations that are less allies for US, don’t represent the powerfull countries but don’t have to care about visas – f.e. Czech Republic.
Maybe US has still big influence on polish politicians, maybe USD has still small part of its magicall taste which had in 80s – but world and people change and younger people that for now don’t rule in Poland but are on their way to this in next years, will not forget about actions like mentioned above – actions that showed complete disregard this “third-role ally” and naturally look around for better options of allies for the future.
One thing that US has to remember is that better is have one small ally than no one. But, who cares about it?
Well, Jul, when you’re basically a lackey, you get treated as one. I don’t think the US respects the Poles very much. And the Poles don’t help their cause by their self-denigrating behavior. Poles need to stand up and do what’s best for THEIR people and not what is convenient for domestic or foreign elites.
[…] Obama’s Sunday Golf Game May Cost Him Polish American Vote […]
With great respect and affection for the people and history of Poland, I must confess that this seems a big over-reaction.
I spent the fall of ’08 in Warsaw and participated in forums and symposia regarding the U.S. election and about Obama, in particular. The bias against Obama was so strong, it shocked me! Even in what we might agree are highly educated, intelligentsia the degree of ignorance but blind bias was stunning.
So. Frankly, I don’t think Obama has a chance with the Poles. It is a great shame that the volcano kept him from Wawel on Sunday. It would have been a goodwill gesture that could have been very helpful. But I also suspect that he would have done something “wrong” on that visit, anyway.
This makes me sad. It is, in my view, a problem of the Poles forgetting that they are but one of the important and well-respected nations of the world. It was stupid of Obama to be photographed playing golf on Sunday but let’s be realistic, and even a bit kind.
If you found an unexpected hole in your already over-scheduled, intense and constantly stressful schedule, wouldn’t you thank God for the opportunity to relax just a bit.
I love Poland. But I’m glad Obama played golf with his time on Sunday. Perhaps — we have no idea — he spent time early in the day, when the funeral was actually going on in Poland, remembering them in prayer. This time, the Poles just need to get over it.
Let’s not blow it out of proportion.
Shrug your shoulders and get on with it.
Well,well.. did any of the European politicians who couldn’t attend the funeral participated in any forms of public entertainment during the time of the funeral? No. Because such thing would be considered lack of decorum in a very tragic situation. Not only in Poland, but in any European country. In some European countries the day of funeral was the day of national mourning, and the funeral was transmitted life. Were those counties, not only Poland “superstitious” and lionizing a dead politician?
“I think Americans are a whole lot less superstitious than Poles, by which I mean they are less likely to lionize dead politicians.” WOW!This is so arrogant and biased. Ethnocentric in fact. So, the Americans played golf during the funeral of, for ex. president Kennedy? I am sure they showed more respect.
Cultural expressions of sympathy during grave tragedies vary, but lets face it: playing golf during funeral which someone wanted to attend in the first place is an insulting act. It is simply bad manners. For a politician, or a simple citizen alike. And considered as insulting not only in Poland, but also in others, less “superstitious” European countries. How German, or French politicians behaved? Not bad, not childish as the US president did. Actually they did really well. For ex. from Germany Berliner Philharmonics played at the part of the funeral, to show solidarity. Nice, elegant gesture.
As citizens we can have our own private opinions, but a head of a country needs to show decorum, cultural sensitivity and and understanding of the protocol. Sadly, the president of the US showed lack of diplomatic sophistication and lack of sensitivity. Pity.
“I think Americans are a whole lot less superstitious than Poles, by which I mean they are less likely to lionize dead politicians.”
Are you joking? Poles put the dead president in a crypt of a castle. This is all. Americans build museums for their dead presidents. Even Nixon has one, lionization big time. Where in Europe people build museums for their dead presidents?
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