What was the Rapacki Plan and what did it propose?
The Rapacki Plan was a 1957 proposal presented by Polish Foreign Minister Adam Rapacki at the United Nations on the 2nd of October 1957. It called for a nuclear-free zone covering Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany, and West Germany, where no nuclear weapons would be manufactured or stockpiled. The West rejected it on the grounds that removing nuclear weapons from Central Europe would leave NATO's conventional forces exposed to the larger conventional forces of the Eastern bloc.
Who was Adam Rapacki and what role did he hold in Poland?
Adam Rapacki was a Polish communist politician and diplomat who served as Poland's Foreign Minister from 1956 to 1968 in the cabinet of Józef Cyrankiewicz. He was also a member of the Politburo of the Polish United Workers' Party. Before becoming foreign minister, he served as Minister of Shipping and Minister of Higher Education.
When and where was Adam Rapacki born?
Adam Rapacki was born on the 24th of December 1909 in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary, the city now known as Lviv, Ukraine. His family moved to Warsaw in 1919, where he attended gymnasium from 1920 to 1929 and later studied at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics.
What did Adam Rapacki do during World War II?
Rapacki served as a second lieutenant and platoon leader in the 36th Infantry Regiment of the Academic League during Germany's invasion of Poland. He was taken into captivity on the 22nd of September 1939, near the Modlin Fortress, and spent the rest of World War II in prisoner-of-war camps, where he wrote anti-Nazi books and secret newspapers and taught himself Russian.
Why did Poland want a nuclear-free zone in Central Europe in the 1950s?
Poland's main concern was preventing West Germany from acquiring nuclear weapons. The West German government refused to accept the Oder-Neisse line as Germany's eastern frontier and in 1955 requested at a NATO Council meeting that the Bundeswehr be armed with nuclear weapons, which caused significant alarm in Warsaw. Polish diplomacy saw the creation of a nuclear-free zone as the best available way to block that outcome.
When did Adam Rapacki die and what awards did he receive?
Adam Rapacki died in Warsaw on the 10th of October 1970, aged 60. His awards included the Order of the Builders of People's Poland in 1964, the Grand Cross of the Ordre national du Merite from France in 1967, and the Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1965, among decorations from Bulgaria, Brazil, North Korea, and Poland itself.