WARSAW, Poland -- Polish television viewers said they were moved and gratified by an unprecedented speech by U.S. Vice President George Bush carried nationally Monday night.
'He spoke warmly about us Poles,' said librarian Ewa Echt, 38. 'But it sounded untrue when he said we shall never be left alone by Americans.'
Bush reviewed his visit to Poland during the broadcast, noting he held talks with Polish leader Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa.
'It was a surprise to me to hear Walesa's name,' Echt said in a telephone interview.
Walesa himself said he missed Bush's speech because he was out of his apartment in the Baltic seaport of Gdansk.
'But my wife, Danuta, said it was a great speech,' he said. 'I must get a videotape.'
Marek Grabski, a technician, said Bush was collecting campaign points for his presidential run.
'His speech was similar to what he delivered in the church of Lomianki outside Warsaw,' he said. 'I listened to it on the Voice of America,' the U.S. government-sponsored radio station.
'I am glad to hear he met Walesa,' said lawyer Wieslaw Jachacz, 44. 'I am glad the vice president respects him so much.'
After Bush finished his 5-minute speech during an evening news program, a panel of Polish commentators took him to task, saying he violated a pledge not to use the address to tell the Polish people what political road to take.
Karol Szyndzielorz, a leading Polish reporter, criticized Bush for saying 'Americans suffered with Poles' during martial law.
'I did not see them suffering,' Szyndzielorz said. 'In fact, Americans were very successful in making our economic situation even more difficult,' referring to U.S. economic sanctions against Poland.
But some Poles were incensed by the commentators' criticisms.
A man identifying himself as Tadeusz Zielinski from the western city of Plock telephoned United Press International and said the communist commentators 'offended Poles and the American nation.'
