THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2025 47 always been better than embassies at spotting talent at an early age, and Poznan excelled at it. USIS Poznan can claim many other triumphs: the creation of strong bonds between American universities and Polish counterparts in Poznan, Wroclaw, Torun (birthplace of Copernicus), and elsewhere in western Poland. Visits by jazz greats from Dave Brubeck to Wynton Marsalis and many other cultural presentations belied regime claims that America was a decadent, dying civilization. When the first NATO exercise ever on the soil of the former Warsaw Pact was held a few miles outside Poznan in 1994, the 600 or so journalists who parachuted in for the occasion managed largely because USIS Poznan staffers were around to help them and military press officers find everything from telephones to the parade ground. The behind-the-scenes work that made “operation cooperative bridge” a public affairs success was typical of the low-key effectiveness of USIS Poznan, which began as an outpost of the Cold War but went beyond conflict to form friendships, deepen understanding, and sustain the love of democracy, freedom, and independence that eventually prevailed in Poland. Whatever the future of American relations with western Poland, those who served with USIS in Poznan—among them, Urszula Dziuba, Janusz Buszynski, Irena Horbowa, Roman Jankowski, Barbara Torlinska, Slawak Woch, Jawiga Chojnacka, Czeslaw Jankowiak, Len Baldyga, Jack Harrod, Larry Plotkin, John Scott Williams, Patrick Hodai, Richard Lundberg, Doug Ebner, Janet Demiray, Daniel Spikes, Sharon Lynch, Thomas Carmichael—know their work there mattered. USIS Poznan leaves a legacy to cherish. n The first edition of USIA World in 1996 contained the author’s report on the closing of USIS Poznan. Poznan’s local newspaper (left) also broadcast news of the closure. COURTESY OFURSZULA DZIUBA
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