Western tariffs continue to cripple East Central Europeanrneconomies. Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski keep remindingrnus that, at present, NATO protects those Europeanrnborders which need no protection rather than those whichrnneed protection. But an effort of will to incorporate EastrnCentral Europe into NATO has not been made.rnLargely without being noticed, the American intellectual establishmentrnhas set up its own rules of political correctness inrnregard to the countries of this region. The best treatment isrnreserved for the Czechs, the worst, for the Poles. Consider thernanonymous papers published by the Commission on Securityrnand Cooperation in Europe (an American government agency),rnassessing democratic liberties in postcommunist Europe.rn”Human Rights and Democratization in the Czech Republic”rn(September 1994) repeatedly emphasizes that in various EastrnEuropean countries, as well as in the United States, seriousrncrimes against human rights have been committed, and thernCzech Republic occasionally falls in the same category: “Althoughrnthe basic idea of expelling ethnic Germans fromrnCzechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary had been blessed by thernUnited States . . . the methods used for the expulsions were,rnin many instances, neither ‘ordedy’ nor ‘humane,’ as ultimatelyrncalled for by Czechoslovak and international authorities. . . .rnAlthough the expulsion of ethnic Germans appears to havernbeen even more brutal and more lethal in regions east of thernCzech lands, the issue of the expulsion of Sudeten Germansrnappears to have become a question of far greater political significancernin the Czech Republic than in post-communistrnPoland or Russia.” “Each country and every nation,” the reportrncontinues, “has inglorious pages in its history and thernUnited States is no exception; Americans continue to strugglernwith a legacy of slavery, brutal treatment of native Americans,rnand even the wrongful confinement of American citizens becausernof their race during World War II.” The author statesrnthat the Czechs have not had an impeccable record in regardrnto the Gypsies, but also implies that mistreatment of Gypsiesrnis equally severe in Poland and Hungary: “According to a 1991rnopinion poll conducted in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia,rn85 percent of the Czechoslovak respondents said theyrnwould not like to have Roma [Gypsies] as neighbors.” Eiguresrnfor Poland or Hungary are not provided. There arc laudatoryrnpassages about the founding of the Czechoslovak state and thernCzech record in general: “the Czech Republic has received admirationrnfor its overall record on human rights and politicalrnstability.”rnNo such tiptoeing can be found in “Human Rights and Democratizationrnin Poland” (January 1994). Here, the authorrntends to highlight individual incidents, implying that they illustraternthe rule: “Eor example, in 1991 there were violent attacksrnon members of the Roma community in the village ofrnMlava. In spite of the brutal nature of the assaults, the attacksrnresulted in only light sentences, giving rise to concerns that therngovernment is insufficiently sensitive to the threat of ethnic,rnreligious and linguistic intolerance.” Note the imputed lack ofrna separation of powers. Nothing is said about the reemergencernof the Polish state in 1918, about the Polish-Soviet war ofrn1920-21, which culminated in the battle of the Vistula andrnstopped the Soviet advance into then left-leaning Germany—rnnot a word.rnBut there is much annoyance at the attempt by Poles to stoprnabortion on demand: “Contrary to public sentiment, some legislatorsrnin the previous parliament, posing as the self-appointedrnguardians of Catholicism, engaged in heavy-handed tacticsrnto push through a provision requiring religious education inrnschools, a media law that demands respect for the ‘Christianrnsystem of values,’ and an abortion ban that provides criminalrnpenalties for both doctors and patients.” This last bit of informationrnis mendacious. The Polish antiabortion law of 1993rnspecifies that only individuals performing, not undergoing,rnabortions may be punished. When I wrote about these mattersrnto Senator Dennis deConcini, he wrote back admitting thernmisstatement of fact but without apologies and vigorouslyrndefending the brochure.rnWhy do the rules of political correctness continue to damnrnPoland with faint praise? The Czechs are astute and toughmindedrnpeople, but they are neither better nor worse thanrnothers in East Central Europe. Charter 77 enlisted about 1,300rnpeople, but Poland’s Solidarity had 10 million members, andrnit was the only nonviolent mass movement ever to present arnunited front to communism. The Solidarity labor movementrnplayed a role comparable in importance to Ronald Reagan’srnPershings in Germany, Mikhail Gorbachev’s reformism, andrnPope John Paul IPs moral support. So why is Poland a pariahrnamong the politically correct?rnPart of the answer is precisely because Poland did play a keyrnrole in the abolition of communism. Too many Americanrnacademics were sorry to see communism go, having built theirrncareers on explaining how it functions and having articulatedrna model of the world into which communism nicely fitted.rnAnother piece of the puzzle is the deep-seated prejudice of thernAmerican elites against Catholicism, the confession to whichrn98 percent of Poles profess allegiance, according to a Septemberrn1994 poll. Anti-Catholicism is still the anti-Semitism ofrnAmerican intellectuals. As long as Poland remains Poland, i.e.,rnas long as its people refuse to reduce Christianity to the realmrnof private hobbies, they will be treated as untouchables byrnAmerica’s power class. Poles lack that qualifying grace of distancingrnthemselves from old-time religion, which Czech intellectualsrnsuch as Thomas Masaryk or Edward Benes represented.rnThe prewar Czechoslovak government was profoundlyrnanti-Catholic, drawing its strength from a largely secularizedrnand anticlerical Bohemia (in contrast to the strongly CatholicrnMoravia, the other part of the Czech Republic). Ever since thernBattle of White Mountain in 1620, when the Protestant Czechrnpatriots lost to the hated Catholic Austrian Habsburgs, whornabsorbed Czech lands into their empire, the tenor of politicalrndiscourse in Czechia has been more than a little anti-Catholic.rnVigorous attempts have been made to remake Poland intorna country where the “intelligentsia,” or college-educatedrnsection of the population, share an attitude of bemused superiorityrnin regard to all that Polish Catholicism represents.rnAdam Michnik’s Gazeta Wyborcza is the Polish equivalent ofrnthe New York Times. Allegations continue to fly in Poland thatrnthe cooperative firm Agora, which publishes Gazeta, appropriatedrnthe lion’s share of the funds American taxpayers sentrnto Poland to support Solidarity’s publications. But those whornaccused Gazeta of misappropriations have failed to producernany evidence of wrongdoing. Gazeta has captured a largernshare of the newspaper market, and together with Politykarn(edited by “reformist” communists), it exercises an influencernon the Polish reading classes. Polish conservative publicationsrnare underfunded, and their runs are small. Significantly, thernonly philosophically conservative publication of any size is thern24/CHRONICLESrnrnrn