Poland\'s \"Freedom Night\" with US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in Washington DC

23 maja, 2014

Poland’s “Freedom Night” proved very popular among the press, with the event being covered not only by top US media outlets (CNN, Washington Post, The Hill, Reuters) as well as Polish ones, but also Spanish, German, Romanian as well as several Japanese news outlets.

Members of Washington DC’s political, scientific and financial elites joined numerous representatives of the diplomatic corps, media members as well as the Polish-American community in celebrating „Polish Freedom Night” at the Ambassador’s Residence in Washington DC. The honorary guest of the evening celebrating Poland’s 223rd Constitution Day and 25th Anniversary of democratic transformation was US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.

During his public remarks Ambassador Ryszard Schnepf, emphasizing the historic bonds that tie the United States and Poland together, recalled the memory of the young American pilots from the legendary Kosciuszko Squadron, who in 1919 risked their lives to fight for newly independent Poland in the Polish-Bolshevik War, “Major Fauntleroy, Captains Cooper and Corsi as well as Lieutenant Crawford, natives of Nebraska, West Virginia and Louisiana joined the Polish military in order to serve as shining examples of fighting for such principles as democracy, freedom and independence."

Ambassador Schnepf also emphasized the great symbolism that President Barack Obama’s presence in Warsaw will have during the upcoming 25th Anniversary of the June 4th 1989 elections:

“Poland awaits the American President. There is no better way to remember American support for Poland during our fight for democracy and subsequent transformation than the presence of Barack Obama on this day in Warsaw, in Poland – a country whose people started the change that led to the fall of the Soviet bloc.”

As stated by Secretary of Defense Hagel, “Poland and Poles were always unique, through their possessing of an unbreakable spirit and strength, which you should be proud of not only when celebrating significant anniversaries such as 25 years since the elections of 1989 or 15 years of NATO membership.” Secretary Hagel also spoke of his Polish ancestry and about his recent visit to Poland in January, 2014.

Among the several hundred guests who gathered to celebrate “Freedom Night” were Poland’s Undersecretary of State for European Policy Dr. Henryka Moscicka-Dendys, Congressmen Dan Lipinski, Paul Tonko, William Enyart and Dan Benishek, high ranking representatives of the American administration as well as numerous Ambassadors accredited to Washington DC, including the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Carlos Maria Vigano.