Books: Angry Ambassador

I SAW POLAND BETRAYED (344 p.)—Arthur Bliss Lane—Bobbs-Merrill ($3.50).

When Arthur Lane stepped into the plane that, in July 1945, was to take him to his post as U.S. Ambassador to Poland, few Americans yet realized that Lane's mission was doomed to the futilities of diplomatic protests. But no Big-Three doubletalk, no top-level deals, not even thick applications of F.D.R.'s charm on Stalin, could alter the inescapable fact: the Russians were in, the U.S. out.

Until the Warsaw government's rigged elections in January 1947, Lane stuck to his post. After that, seeing no hope of Poland's adherence to the Yalta declaration ("free and...