Polskie Dokumenty Dyplomatyczne 1973

This successive volume in the series Polish Diplomatic Documents comprises 240 documents on Polish foreign policy in 1973, created mostly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (and kept at the MFA Archives) and also by the Polish United Workers’ Party’s Politburo, Central Committee Secretariat and Foreign Commission (kept at the Central Archives of Modern Records). Nearly all materials in the volume have not been published before, classified as either “confidential” or “strictly confidential”.

The documents are presented in chronological order. The volume contains a name index, a subject index and annexes with information about the organizational structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1973 and a list of major international agreements signed in that year.

Poland’s foreign policy in 1973 was influenced by key international developments which the Polish authorities could not, or were unwilling to, ignore: the conclusion of the Paris Agreements, ending the Vietnam war (27 January), the coup d'état in Chile (12 September), and the outbreak of the Israel-Arab war (6 October). Much space, in particular, is devoted to the Polish diplomatic activity in connection with the Vietnam conflict, and the Polish contribution to the International Commission for Control and Supervision.

Multilateral preparatory talks on the European Conference on Security and Cooperation stayed in 1973 in the focus of attention of the Polish diplomatic service, which was also engaged in  prolonged negotiations with the Federal Republic of Germany over indemnities for Poles aggrieved by the Third Reich, investment credits, and emigration of Polish citizens of German extraction.

An important role was also played by economic contacts with West European countries and the United States.

Obviously, the Polish foreign policy direction was determined by the country’s relations with the U.S.S.R. and the Polish diplomatic service’s dependence on Moscow, as is documented in the present volume.