Diplomacy: A Troubling Stamp of Approval

A Troubling Stamp of Approval

The visit was hastily planned and largely unwanted. There were no flashy motorcades, no wreath layings and no banquets. Yet from the moment that Polish Leader Wojciech Jaruzelski shook hands with French President Francois Mitterrand at Paris' Elysee Palace last week, he had achieved what he sought: the stamp of international respectability from a major West European leader. Mitterrand thus became the first Western head of state to receive Jaruzelski since the Polish leader crushed the independent trade union movement, Solidarity, and imposed martial law on the country four years ago this week.

Mitterrand's own Socialist Party did not conceal its...

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