The Activities of Jacob Beam as the US Ambassador to Poland and the Problem of the Development of US-Polish Relations During the Eisenhower Presidency
The article, based on the memoirs of Jacob Beam, the American ambassador to Poland, and on other open historical sources, analyzes the state of US-Polish relations during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower. In particular, the author used documents from the State Department and declassified documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Communist Poland. The main aim of the article is to investigate the results of the work of the American ambassador and give a general outline of the policy of the Eisenhower administration regarding Poland. Beam was appointed US Ambassador to Warsaw in August 1957, in the wake of improvements in US-Polish relations after Vladislav Gomulka's coming to power in Poland. His regime, according to a number of American officials, should have been supported for his reforms and a tendency towards politicians more independent from the USSR. The supporters of this point of view saw the Polish leaderas a kind of a “new Tito” ready either for a complete break with the Soviet Union or, at least, for a more sovereign political course. Beam was already familiar with the “alternative” version of socialism not controlled by the USSR. Working in the American mission in Belgrade from April 1951 to November 1952, he participated in organizing economic and military assistance to the regime of Josip Tito, who was in confrontation with the USSR at that time. Now, on the instructions of Washington, Beam had to do the same with respect to Gomulka's regime, though this time it was only about economic assistance, Warsaw did not agree to any military cooperation. Over the years of work, Beam managed to conclude a series of Polish-American economic agreements that contributed to the strengthening of cooperation between the two countries. One of the most important agreements signed during this period was the agreement on the payment of compensation to US citizens for nationalized property. Negotiations on this issue took several years, culminating in the signing on July 16, 1960, of the final version of the agreement, according to which Poland pledged to pay compensation to American citizens in the amount of $40 million. Payments were supposed to last for 20 years ($ 2 million per year) starting in 1961. In response to the resolution of the multi-year compensation problem, the United States agreed in December 1961 to grant Poland the most-favored-nation treatment in trade. Another component of Beam's diplomatic mission was negotiations with the Chinese during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, which helped to de-escalate the strait and freeze the conflict. In general, Beam's mission was successful. Polish-American relations were taken to a new level.