From Solidarity to ‘Shock Therapy’. British Foreign Policy Towards Poland Under the Thatcher Government, 1980–1990

Abstract

The Polish crisis of 1980 and 1981 was one of the intermittent bouts of protest that erupted in the communist bloc during the Cold War. The Thatcher government recognised Poland as a vital crucible of the conflict and that the regime in the country was among the most vulnerable in the region. The limited measures the British offered to assist Solidarity in Poland were a result of the Thatcher government's own position as well as the underlying geopolitical reality at that time. The strategy that Britain progressively employed towards Poland during the rest of the decade, ultimately achieving its long-term objectives, was indicative of the thaw in superpower relations, the consolidation of Thatcherism at home and the march of neo-liberal ideas internationally.

Keywords:

• Thatcherism
• neoliberalism
• British Foreign Policy
• Cold War
• Poland

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Professor Tim Bale at Queen Mary University London for all his advice and suggestions. For invaluable comments and suggestions, the author is also grateful to Richard Morris, Martin Longstaff and the anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^[1] Margaret Thatcher Foundation website (hereafter MTF) MTF 120755, telegram from UK Embassy in Warsaw to FCO, July 21, 1980, ‘Labour Unrest in Poland’.

^[2]Howe, Enterprise Zones, 17–22; Baker, Turbulent, 356; Lawson, View, 975; and Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, 755.

^[3]Vinen, ‘Thatcherism and the Cold War’, 211.

^[4]Sharp, Thatcher's Diplomacy, xvii.

^[5]Moore, Margaret Thatcher_, 574.

^[6]Hamilton, The Know How Fund, 1.

^[7]Applebaum, Iron Curtain, 484–486.

^[8]Kunicki, Between the Brown and the Red, 151–153.

^[9]Hitchcock, Struggle, 303–305.

^[10]Moore, Margaret Thatcher, 574.

^[11]Garton Ash, The Polish Revolution, 31–33.

^[12]Davies, Heart of Europe, 423–424.

^[13]Hitchcock, Struggle, 352.

^[14] MTF 118106, ‘FCO Record of Conversation (UK, US, Canadian, French, German and Italian Delegations) [Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan]’, December 31, 1979.

^[15]Garton Ash, Solidarity, 36–37.

^[16] Ibid., 73–74.

^[17] MTF 120758, FCO letter to No.10. ‘Assessment of the Current Situation in Poland’. August 22, 1980.

^[18]Garton Ash, Solidarity, 79–84.

^[19] Tomlinson, ‘Thatcherism, Monetarism and the Politics of Inflation’, 76–77; and Saunders, ‘Thatcherism and the Seventies’, 25–26.

^[20]Garton Ash, Solidarity, 76–77.

^[21] MTF 116963, Cabinet Minutes, September 18, 1981.

^[22] MTF 126873, Telegram from UK Embassy in Mexico City to FCO, ‘Carrington Discusses Economic Assistance to Poland with US, French and German Colleagues in Margins of Cancun Meeting’, August 3, 1981.

^[23] MTF 120758, FCO letter to No.10. ‘Assessment of the Current Situation in Poland’. August 22, 1980.

^[24] MTF 120758.

^[25] MTF 112727, ‘MT Note to Carter’, December 8, 1980.

^[26] MTF 120766, Gilmour minute to MT, ‘Possible Economic Assistance for Poland’, October 20, 1980.

^[27] MTF 120766.

^[28] MTF 120768, Howe note to MT, ‘Possible Economic Assistance for Poland’, October 22, 1980.

^[29] MTF 116775, Cabinet Minutes, October 23, 1980.

^[30] MTF 126808, Armstrong briefing note for MT, ‘Aid for Poland’, December 18, 1980.

^[31] MTF120768.

^[32]Harris, Not for Turning, 258.

^[33]Thatcher, Downing Street Years, 252.

^[34] Ibid., 513.

^[35]Garton Ash, Solidarity, 113.

^[36] MTF 126883, Armstrong Briefing Note for MT, ‘Food For Poland’, September 17, 1981.

^[37]Garton Ash, Solidarity, 151, 246–247.

^[38] MTF 117058, Carrington memo circulated to OD (81) 52 Committee, November 9, 1981.

^[39] MTF 117058.

^[40]Garton Ash, Solidarity, 273.

^[41]Harris, Not for Turning, 257.

^[42] MTF 122558, No.10 record of MT–Carrington conversation, December 30, 1981.

^[43] MTF 122942, MT message to RR, July 30, 1982.

^[44] Records of the Cabinet Office, The National Archives: Public Record Office, Kew, (hereafter CAB), CAB 128/74/13, Cabinet minutes, October 14, 1982.

^[45]Letwin, The Anatomy of Thatcherism, 325.

^[46]Moore, Margaret Thatcher, 575.

^[47]Moore, Margaret Thatcher, 576. MTF 122536, No.10 record of telephone conversation (MT–Carrington), December 20, 1981.

^[48]Garton Ash, Solidarity, 343.

^[49]Hitchcock, Struggle, 353–353.

^[50]Garton Ash, Solidarity, 360.

^[51] Ibid.

^[52]Hitchcock, Struggle, 361.

^[53] MTF 111002, UK Embassy in Warsaw to FCO (1984 Annual Report on Poland), December 31, 1984.

^[54] MTF 111002.

^[55] Records of the Foreign Office, The National Archives: Public Record Office, Kew (hereafter FO), FO. 972/180, ‘Foreign Policy Document No. 176, “Economic Reform in Poland”’, September 1987, 1–10.

^[56] FO 972/180, 8.

^[57]Howe, Conflict, 433.

^[58] Ibid.

^[59] Ibid., 434.

^[60]Harrison, ‘Soviet Economic Growth’, 146. By some estimates Soviet GDP growth consistently declined between 1950 and 1987.

^[61]Mearsheimer, ‘The False Promise’, 11. Margaret Thatcher wrote in The Downing Street Years that one of her principles in office was ‘a willingness to stand up for British interests wherever and whenever threatened’. 755.

^[62]Harris, Not for Turning, 259–260.

^[63]Moore, Margaret Thatcher, 660.

^[64] Friedman, ‘Commanding Heights’ interview on PBS, January 20, 2000. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/int_miltonfriedman.html#10.

^[65] Friedman, ‘Commanding Heights’ interview.

^[66]Thatcher, Path, 530.

^[67] Ibid., 587.

^[68]Harris, Not for Turning, 386.

^[69] MTF 117168, Hayek, ‘The Flaws in the Brandt Report’, The Times, January 9, 1981. Records of the Prime Ministers Office: Correspondence and Papers, 1979–1997, (The National Archives: Public Record Office, Kew, hereafter PREM19), PREM19/319, Annex C, 1980 Overseas Aid Review.

^[70]Friedman and Friedman, Free to Choose, 34.

^[71]Kiely, The Clash of Globalisations, 2–3, 299.

^[72] Tony Faint, personal communication with the author, February 25, 2012.

^[73] Tim Raison, Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 86, November 8, 1985, 220–286.

^[74] As a percentage of the total budget, multilateral aid rose from 30.7 per cent in 1979 to 42.1 per cent in 1988. Source: ODA. In: Morrissey, Smith and Horesh, British Aid and International Trade, 91.

^[75] Lynda Chalker, Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 156, July 14, 1989, 1239–1308.

^[76]Thatcher, Downing Street Years, 169.

^[77]Hitchock, Struggle, 352.

^[78]Brown, Gorbachev Factor, 247.

^[79]Garton Ash, Solidarity, 364.

^[80]Harris, Not for Turning, 270–271.

^[81]Thatcher, Downing Street Years, 777.

^[82]Thatcher, Downing Street Years, 780–781.

^[83] Sikorski, ‘Margaret Thatcher’, The Telegraph, April 9, 2013. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9982098/Margaret-Thatcher-A–Cold-War-angeland-a-democratic-miracle.html.

^[84]Hitchcock, Struggle, 361–362.

^[85]Brown, Gorbachev Factor, 225.

^[86]Hitchcock, Struggle, 359–360.

^[87]Williamson, ‘Strange History’, 195.

^[88]Hamilton, Know How Fund, 1.

^[89]Hamilton, Know How Fund, 3.

^[90]Saull, The Cold War and After, 170–171; and Balcerowicz, ‘Transition to the Market Economy’, 74.

^[91]Simmons, Dobbin and Garrett, ‘Conclusion’, 345–346.

^[92]Hamilton, Know How Fund, 11, 15.

^[93] Tony Faint, personal correspondence with the author, February 25, 2012.

^[94]The Economist, June 2, 1990, 29 and Mendelson, ‘Power and Limits’, 238.

^[95] Tony Faint, personal correspondence with the author, February 25, 2012.

^[96]Hamilton, Transformational Diplomacy, 159.

^[97] Tony Faint, personal correspondence with the author, 25 February 2012.

^[98] Harris, Not For Turning, 100. The CPS was the neo-liberal think-tank set up primarily by Keith Joseph, although with Margaret Thatcher's support, that most notably promoted free market strategies during the 1970s.

^[99]Vinen, Thatcher's Britain, 4.

^[100] Ibid, 274.

^[101] Tony Faint, personal correspondence with the author, February 25, 2012.

^[102]Lipton and Sachs, ‘Creating a Market Economy’, 129; and Sachs, Poland's Jump, 84.

^[103] Nigel Lawson, House of Commons Debates, 158, October 19, 1989, 254–256.

^[104]Garton Ash, Solidarity, 365.

^[105]Baker, Turbulent, 356.

^[106]Davies, Heart of Europe, 412.

^[107] Ibid.

^[108]Thatcher, Path, 591.

^[109] Ibid.

^[110]Balcerowicz, ‘Common fallacies’, 19–20.

^[111]Åslund, ‘Possible Future Directions’, 454, 467.

^[112]Keane and Prasad, ‘Poland’.

^[113]Balcerowicz, ‘Transition’, 80.

^[114]Lipton and Sachs, ‘Creating a Market Economy’, 129; and Sachs, Poland's Jump, 84.

^[115] Letter to Pinochet from Friedman, 21 April 1975, in Klein, The Shock Doctrine, 591–594.

^[116]Friedman, ‘Steps from Here to There’, 43–62.

^[117]Kunicki, Between the Brown and the Red, 184.

^[118]Ost, The Defeat of Solidarity, 72, 180.

^[119] Ibid., 67–69.

^[120]Kunicki, Between the Brown and the Red, 184.

^[121] Ibid., 185.

^[122] R. Sikorski, ‘Margaret Thatcher: A Cold War Angel and a Democratic Miracle’, The Telegraph, 9 April 2013.