Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Salutes President Lech Walesa
Drawing his strength from devout Catholicism, Lech Walesa, a Polish shipyard worker, led the 10 million member "Solidarnosc" or "Solidarity" movement that helped crack communism in Eastern Europe. He ranks with Reagan, Thatcher, Solzhenitsyn, and Pope John Paul II as the key figures in defeating Soviet Russia and her satellites.
"I have often been asked in the United States to sign the poster that many Americans consider very significant. Prepared for the first almost-free parliamentary elections in Poland in 1989, the poster shows Gary Cooper as the lonely sheriff in the American Western, "High Noon." Under the headline "At High Noon" runs the red Solidarity banner and the date--June 4, 1989--of the poll. It was a simple but effective gimmick that, at the time, was misunderstood by the Communists. They, in fact, tried to ridicule the freedom movement in Poland as an invention of the "Wild" West, especially the U.S.
But the poster had the opposite impact: Cowboys in Western clothes had become a powerful symbol for Poles. Cowboys fight for justice, fight against evil, and fight for freedom, both physical and spiritual. Solidarity trounced the Communists in that election, paving the way for a democratic government in Poland. It is always so touching when people bring this poster up to me to autograph it. They have cherished it for so many years and it has become the emblem of the battle that we all fought together. "
Lech Walesa
Drawing his strength from devout Catholicism, Lech Walesa, a Polish shipyard worker, led the 10 million member "Solidarnosc" or "Solidarity" movement that helped crack communism in Eastern Europe. He ranks with Reagan, Thatcher, Solzhenitsyn, and Pope John Paul II as the key figures in defeating Soviet Russia and her satellites.
"I have often been asked in the United States to sign the poster that many Americans consider very significant. Prepared for the first almost-free parliamentary elections in Poland in 1989, the poster shows Gary Cooper as the lonely sheriff in the American Western, "High Noon." Under the headline "At High Noon" runs the red Solidarity banner and the date--June 4, 1989--of the poll. It was a simple but effective gimmick that, at the time, was misunderstood by the Communists. They, in fact, tried to ridicule the freedom movement in Poland as an invention of the "Wild" West, especially the U.S.
But the poster had the opposite impact: Cowboys in Western clothes had become a powerful symbol for Poles. Cowboys fight for justice, fight against evil, and fight for freedom, both physical and spiritual. Solidarity trounced the Communists in that election, paving the way for a democratic government in Poland. It is always so touching when people bring this poster up to me to autograph it. They have cherished it for so many years and it has become the emblem of the battle that we all fought together. "
Lech Walesa
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