Enlightened Liberation

Into Pittsburgh one day last week rolled a cream-colored station wagon loaded with Polish highway officials and powered by high-octane U.S. diplomacy. Shepherded by a U.S. Bureau of Public Roads official, the four visiting Poles peppered Pennsylvania experts with questions on road-building materials and mechanization, marveled at superhighways, ogled multi-colored U.S. cars. Though few Pennsylvanians stopped to ogle back, the Poles were nevertheless important. Like another Polish delegation busy last week observing U.S. corn-raising techniques in Iowa, they were flesh-and-blood manifestations of a new warmth in U.S.-Polish relations.

The warmth was kindled a year ago when President Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles pledged that rebellious Poles and Hungarians could henceforth "draw on our abundance to tide themselves over the period of economic adjustment." Crushed by Russian tanks, the Hungarians were unable to take advantage of the U.S. offer. But the Poles, determinedly establishing themselves as the freest of Russia's satellites, could and did. To Washington came an economic delegation that negotiated an agreement for $95 million worth of U.S. aid and went home with the possibility of receiving even more. In addition, the U.S. eased restrictions on the shipment of strategic goods to Poland, upped exports so that more dollars worth of goods have already been delivered so far this year than were shipped all of last year. The Poles have increased exports to the U.S., e.g., canned hams, Christmas ornaments, have leveled the ratio of their trade to the East and West from 70-30 a year ago to 55-45 now.

Trade is only one element in this U.S. strategy of "enlightened liberation." While exchange teams come to the U.S. to study highways, farming, home building and steel production, U.S. experts tour Poland to inspect and suggest. Ten times as many U.S. citizens are visiting Poland this year as went last year. American movies are being shown again for the first time since the Communists took control of the country. Both the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations are arranging grants to provide exchange students. One of the most dramatic examples of the new policy at work was the success of the American exhibit at the Poznan Fair (TIME, June 24).

Watching the flow of aid, trade and ideas, a State Department observer last week summed up the U.S. attitude towards its Polish experiment: "It is a calculated risk. But what we could gain is great, what we could lose is relatively insignificant."

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