Warsaw Embassy Cable on the Election of 1989

One of the most important agreements made by Communist officials and opposition leaders in Poland at the roundtable talks that took place in February through April 1989 was the decision to hold, for the first time, semi-free elections, in which half of the parliamentary seats would be freely contested. In this confidential cable, the American Embassy in Warsaw reported to the U.S. Secretary of State on Poland's upcoming election to be held in June 1989. U.S. officials watched closely as these elections unfolded and as communist rule started to crumble under the pressure of the opposition. As the summary of this document indicates, the results were unpredictable, yet exciting. These elections opened up the political process in Poland and led to greater changes throughout Eastern Europe, eventually resulting in the collapse of communism in the Soviet bloc.