How CIA's `QRHELPFUL' Covert Action Program Helped Polish `Solidarity' Group In 1980s: Part 6

During the 1980s a group in Poland that Lech Walesa led, called "Solidarity," was apparently secretly supported by the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA] of the Republican Reagan administration. As the Chair and Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies [CSIS]'s Transnational Threats Project, Seth G. Jones, recalled in his 2018 book, A Covert Action: Reagan, The CIA, and The Cold War Struggle in Poland:

"The CIA promoted the Solidarity logo around the world and helped manufacture and distribute Solidarity buttons, T-shirts, key chains, and other items--much like a public relations firm...With Malzahn's oversight, CIA case officers and assets helped organize demonstrations in roughly 20 countries...

"The CIA stations in Mexico City and Paris were particularly active. CIA case officers and their networks helped place articles in over two dozen Mexican newspapers; provided financial assistance for pro-Solidarity demonstrations, organized a half dozen television and radio interviews with Miroslav Dominczyk, one of Solidarity's founders; helped arrange a dozen press conferences with Dominczyk; and distributed over 70,000 bulletins across the country...

"The overseas hub of QRHELPFUL remained Paris, where QRBERETTA--the covert action program that began in 1950 to support...Kultura--had been one of the CIA's first-ever political programs. The CIA asset...QRGUIDE, who worked closely with CIA case officer Celia Larkin, helped plaster Metro stations with 40,000 stickers urging Parisians to the Polish ambassador...Also arranged for French television to broadcast taped interviews with Solidarity leaders...One of the...demonstrations was organized by a CIA Paris station asset...in cooperation with the French labor confederation Force Ouvriere (Workers' Force)...Thanks to these and other efforts, Poland and...Solidarity continued to be covered in newspapers, magazines, and radio and television programs..

"...Several additional CIA stations played roles in supporting QRHELPFUL. They included Rome, London, Brussels, and Bonn, as well as smaller CIA offices in West Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Frankfurt. Other CIA hubs included Lisbon, Portugal and Bern, Switzerland--which had mostly supporting roles.

"Several wealthy Europeans provided cover for the large sums of money flowing into...Poland-related activities...The CIA recruited a Portuguese businessman...who mounted pro-Solidarity demonstrations and served as what the CIA called an `agent of influence.'..." (end of part 6).