Zacharski’s appointment

a Communist restoration:

"When the FBI arrested him in 1981, Zacharski was operating under commercial cover, posing as a salesman for a Polish export firm. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Four years later, he was exchanged for 25 Western agents held in Soviet and East European prisons in one of the Cold War’s periodic spy swaps.

On 15 August 1994, the Polish Government announced Zacharski’s appointment as head of civilian intelligence in the Office of State Protection. He never got to see the inside of his office. Brzezinski and Jan Nowak, another prominent Polish-American, both protested the appointment, warning that it would cast a shadow on Poland’s chances for joining NATO.50 Warsaw denied that the appointment had political overtones, but conservatives complained that it was part of a Communist restoration. On the 17th, the US Embassy delivered a démarche to the Polish Government. It noted that Zacharski was still under a life sentence in the United States and requested that Warsaw reconsider his appoint-ment.51 Zacharski withdrew his name the next day. But the episode left a bad feeling in Poland. Once again, Washington and Polish-Americans had intervened in an internal matter and pressured Warsaw to reverse an official decision.

In response to a poll that paired Kuklinski and Zacharski,52 most respondents answered "neither one" when asked, "Which colonel better served Poland?" But more (17 percent) chose Zacharski over Kuklinski (7 percent). Ten percent of those polled said they were comparable, and 70 percent were not interested and had no opinion. In addition, 22 percent said Zacharski was fit to head Polish intelligence, and 22 percent disagreed. Ten percent thought Kuklinski was suited for the job, but 48 percent placed him in the unfit category."