When I looked at today’s date, I seemed to remember that something significant happened on December 13. Then it struck me; on this date, 25 years ago, martial law was declared in Poland, ending the reforms brought about by the Solidarity trade union, led by Lech Walęsa .
I was a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army at the time, about half way through the nine-month, intensive, intermediate Polish course at the Defense Language Institute, so the declaration of martial law was of particular of interest to me. At the time, it seemed as if all the progress that had been made since the summer of 1980 had gone the way of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring of 1968.
But there were three world leaders who viewed it differently: Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II. Each of them refused to accept that Poland’s quest for democracy was dead. Who would have believed that by eight short years later, the Poles would hold free elections and the Berlin Wall would come down?
Twenty five years from now, when we look back on the events of today in the Middle East, who will be the world leaders we will remember, and why?