ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses whether two out of four "failures" in the Bank and the Fund were a consequence of the fact that those members were centrally-planned economies. As long as Poland remained in the Soviet Bloc, it appeared that it would be highly unlikely that Poland would share in the reconstruction funds being distributed by the Bank and Fund. Poland's political attributes as a member of the Soviet Bloc placed it in the political arena of Bank and Fund lending operations almost from the beginning in 1946. Poland joined the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with the hope that the organizations would bear a significant part of its reconstruction burden. Ensuing Polish foreign policy reinforced Poland's position in the political arena as is evidenced by the importance of Polish lack of independence in the evaluation of, and eventual rejection of, the Polish coal loan.
