I am not sure what OP wants to say with this submission... Is it that the US treats differently people who defect to them than people who defect from them? That's... not very surprising. In some way it feels more fair than the way the Soviets treated Kim Philby, a British spy and defector: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Philby" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Philby</a> (tl;dr: he wasn't a KGB colonel like he was promised, he was kept essentially in house arrest, and had a 500 rubel allowance).<p>As for Kukliński, being a Pole myself, I have mixed feelings. I very much prefer that my country is in the American sphere of influence (and not the Soviet as it used to for almost 50 years). However, if WW3 had happened, we would've been be on the Soviet side. Zbigniew Brzeziński said that Kuklinski’s information had permitted them to make counterplans to disrupt command-and-control facilities rather than only relying on a massive counterattack on forward positions, which would have hit Poland. However, I have no dellusions that anybody in the US would have any doubts about turning Poland into a radioactive wasteland if that served the American interests of the moment...<p>Also, the Polish government after the fall of Communism wasn't very eager to pardon Kukliński. That happened only after Clinton's administration threatened to block Poland's NATO accession if he weren't exonerated.
From the article:<p>"Polish Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski was a patriot who showed his love for his country in a very courageous act. He risked his life and the safety of his family to protect Poland from the Soviets during the Cold War by spying for the United States."<p>Oh such delicious double-speak...you spy on us, you are a traitor. You spy on your country for us, you are a patriot of your country.
If you want to see a <i>true</i> Cold War hero, a person who prevented a nuclear war from starting, read about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov</a>
"1995, the court dismissed Kuklinski’s sentence completely, declaring that he was acting under special circumstances and the higher need of his country. Kuklinski finally returned to Poland for a visit in the spring of 1998."<p>truth being told, USA, like always, bullied Poland into withdrawing the charges ( and that "helped" them join the structures of NATO) which is quite well described for example in the latest book by Leszek Miller, who dealt with the case as a prime minister after 1989.<p>( I don't have a personal opinion about Kuklinski's choice - it was treason, it was patriotism, it was many things - everybody lives by their own ethical backbone ).
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More about Kukliński here:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryszard_Kukli%C5%84ski" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryszard_Kukli%C5%84ski</a>