The leaders of the Western world were preoccupied with a common question last week: How should they respond to the Polish government's declaration of martial law and crackdown on the independent trade union movement Solidarity? In a Christmas address to the American people, President Reagan proposed a number of economic sanctions against Poland and one sweeping, symbolic gesture of support. Recalling that the Polish people were demonstrating their opposition to martial law by placing lighted candles in their windows, the President declared he would light a candle in a White House window "as a small but certain beacon of our solidarity with the Polish people." He asked Americans "to do the same, on Christmas Eve, as a personal statement of your commitment to the steps we are taking to support the brave people of Poland in their time of troubles." In Vatican City, Pope John Paul II lit a candle in the window of his study. Around the world, millions of candles flickered in the long night of Poland's anguish.
Angered over the repression in Poland and the suspected role of the Soviet Union in bringing it about, President Reagan pondered what to do for more than a week. He sent Assistant Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger to Europe to try to sell America's allies on the idea of imposing joint sanctions against Poland and perhaps the Soviet Union as well. He received Poland's Ambassador to the U.S. Romuald Spasowski, who sought political asylum in the U.S. last week, and hailed Spasowski and his wife Wanda for their courage. In his Christmas ad dress, Christmas President expressed the concern with people." Administration over the events in Poland and declared, "If the outrages in Poland do not cease, we cannot and repression not conduct 'business as usual' with the perpetrators and those who aid and abet them. Make no mistake: their crime will cost them dearly in their future dealings with America and free peoples everywhere."
Reagan considered a long list of measures that the U.S. could take against the Polish government, including a trade boycott. In the end he settled on a set of largely symbolic sanctions: a cutoff of Poland's $25 million in credit insurance at the U.S. Export-Import Bank (which would discourage private banks from lending far greater sums), a suspension of the Polish national airline's right to land in the U.S., and a declaration that American territorial waters would be placed off limits to Polish fishing boats. The effect of these measures, the President hoped, would be to encourage the Polish government to bring a quick end to its state of emergency. Like Reagan, Western European leaders were concerned about the Polish crisis but deeply divided over how to deal with it. French President Francois Mitterrand was outraged over the repression in Poland and convinced that the Soviets were behind it. He disagreed, however, with Reagan's view that Western governments should retaliate by suspending food shipments to Poland. "After all," Mitterrand told a French newspaper, "those who are hungry aren't the ones who are running the government."