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Anthony J. Drexel Biddle wobec sytuacji międzynarodowej Polski w latach 1937-1939

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Siwek K.

Przegląd Zachodni

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2018

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issue 3(368)

97-126

EN

The purpose of this article is to present the views of Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, the United States' Ambassador in Warsaw, concerning the international situation of the Second Republic of Poland from 1937 to 1939. This subject, scarcely represented in Polish historiography,shows the perspective of the American Ambassador on the role of Poland in Europe and reveales his assessment of the "balance of power" policy conducted by minister Józef Beck in the period preceding the outbreak of the Second World War. It appears that Biddle basically shared the Polish perspective on the threat posed by Hitler's Germany and the Soviet Union while emphasizing the crucial role of Poland in further political-military developments in Europe. Accordingly, he supported the Polish will to resist the imminen tGerman aggression since Warsaw's attitude was in his eyes a peculiar "barometer" of British and French readiness to contain German expansion. Although Biddle's position in late 1930s could not influence the policies of the U.S. and European powers toward Poland, it sheds an interesting light on Polish foreign policy and its reception by Western powers,contributing to better understanding of this decisive period of Poland's history. This article was based on analysis of diplomatic papers and the correspondence of Ambassador Biddle from1937 to 1939.

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Sprawa granic Polski w latach 1939-1941 w świetle dokumentów ambasadora Anthony`ego J. Drexel Biddle’a

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Siwek K.

Przegląd Zachodni

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2019

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issue 3 (327)

191-220

EN

The purpose of the article is to present the question of Poland’s borders in the years 1939-1941 from the perspective of Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, the U.S. Ambassador to the Polish Government in Exile, based on his diplomatic papers stored in American archives. Biddle’s continued service with the government of Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski since 1939 implied the U.S. recognition of Poland’s political existence despite the American neutrality towards the occupation of Polish territory by Germany and the USSR. The author proposes the thesis that this unique “ambassador of the oppressed nations” dedicated his special attention to Poland, perceived as a “political barometer” of Europe with an impact on the German-Soviet relations. Therefore, Biddle’s wartime papers indicate that the problem of Poland’s borders constituted a considerable obstacle to the U.S. wartime policy that envisaged engaging the Soviet Union as an ally against Germany. These papers show that the Polish government’s dependence upon Western allies, who since 1939 challenged Poland’s prewar eastern border, negatively influenced the content and political consequences of the Polish-Soviet pact of 1941. Contrary to Sikorski’s hopes for the U.S. support in territorial dispute with the Soviets, ambassador Biddle was critical of Polish efforts to obtain American and British guarantees of borders. He shared the British claim for restitution of Poland only within the so called “ethnographic borders” represented by the Curzon Line in the east that would be “compensated” by the annexation of still undefined German territories. Sikorski’s political ideas regarding Poland’s security against both Germany and Soviet Russia were thus met with suspicion by Biddle, who acted on behalf of American diplomacy which apparently feared the separate German-Soviet peace on the one hand, and Poland’s turning away from the Western allies on the other. It appears from Biddle’s diplomatic correspondence that the United States did not intend to guarantee any territorial designs of Sikorski’s government, since Polish claims contradicted the objectives of the foreign policy of the Anglo-Saxon powers, which assigned a crucial role in Central-Eastern Europe to Soviet Russia, not Poland. The author used abundant diplomatic correspondence gathered at The National Archives and Records Administration, at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in the USA.

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Amerykański przyjaciel? Problem granic Polski w kontaktach ambasadora Anthony’ego J. Drexela Biddle’a z rządem Władysława Sikorskiego w latach 1941–1943

100%

Siwek K.

Śląski Kwartalnik Historyczny Sobótka

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2018

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vol. 73

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issue 4

103-146

EN

The article deals with Polish borders and territorial issues seen from the perspective of the United States Ambassador to Poland Anthony J. Drexel Biddle’s contacts with the government of Wladyslaw Sikorski in 1941–1943. The aim of the article is to present, on the basis of American and Polish archival materials, the American assessment of Polish border issues, as well as the expectations of the Polish government towards the United States and Western allies regarding territorial issues, particularly against the background of the Polish-Soviet relations evolving since 1941. The conducted research allows us to conclude that Sikorski’s government, which revealed to Biddle its readiness to compromise with the Soviets, could not count on support, let alone a guarantee from the United States that the pre-war shape of the Polish-Soviet border would be maintained.

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2 Przegląd Zachodni

1 Śląski Kwartalnik Historyczny Sobótka

1 2019

2 2018

3 Siwek K.

Anthony J. Drexel Biddle wobec sytuacji międzynarodowej Polski w latach 1937-1939

Sprawa granic Polski w latach 1939-1941 w świetle dokumentów ambasadora Anthony`ego J. Drexel Biddle’a

Amerykański przyjaciel? Problem granic Polski w kontaktach ambasadora Anthony’ego J. Drexela Biddle’a z rządem Władysława Sikorskiego w latach 1941–1943