ABSTRACT
Poland had outstripped the Soviet Union in experimenting with reform and had long enjoyed some of the rights being tentatively offered to Soviet society. The Poles realized that any liberalization in the Soviet Union extended the limits of the possible in Poland; Jaruzelski seemed to have seized the initiative. The government's activities concentrated on two elements. These are: an effort to associate official policies, particularly those dealing with peace and disarmament, with positions taken by the Vatican; and an attempt to present the Pope and General Wojciech Jaruzelski as compatriots who, while heading separate states, dealt directly with each other in the interest of international cooperation. The Pope repeatedly defended the achievements of the movement while prudently stopping short of demanding the resurrection of its organizational form. The Pope emphasized the urgent need for the institutional establishment to reach some sort of accommodation with society in order to overcome current problems.
