FROM POLAND WITH LOVE: 100 YEARS OF POLISH-AMERICAN RELATIONS

On 7 November 2017 at the Dom Spotkań z Historią in Warsaw a seminar titled "From Poland with Love. A hundred years of relations between the US and Poland" was held with the participation of Prof. Neal Pease from the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The event was organised by American Center Warsaw, the International Institute of the Civil Society and the Dom Spotkań z Historią. The discussion forming part of the seminar was moderated by Mr. Maciej Gorgol, Board Member of the International Institute of the Civil Society.

Professor Neal Pease is a historian at the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Editor in Chief of the Polish Review. He specialises in the contemporary history of Poland and Central Europe. His specific focus rests on the US-Polish relations to which he dedicated numerous books and academic submissions.

The meeting was opened by Prof. Pease with an introductory lecture in which the guest touched upon the history of 100 years of US-Polish relations. The professor addressed the most important events and figures who played the key role in forming friendly relationships between Washington and Warsaw, with particular emphasis on such prominent figures as Tadeusz Kościuszko, Kazimierz Pułaski, Woodrow Wilson and Pope John Paul II.

After the introduction by Prof. Pease, Mr. Maciej Gorgol – as the moderator – opened a discussion among richly assembled participants centered on the following issues: the place of Kazimierz Pułaski and Tadeusz Kościuszko in the collective memory of the US citizens, forms of US assistance towards the Solidarity Movement during the socialist rule of Poland, cooperation between US and Poland after 1989 within NATO and the role of Poland in the current US foreign policy under President Trump’s administration, in particular in the context of the 2017 visit of President Trump to Poland.