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Poles See Obama Visit Through Lens of Generation

WARSAW — In this big and proud Central European country, whose inhabitants in the past sought refuge or economic opportunities in the United States, the view from the street is changing.

Along the sidewalks of Warsaw on Friday, as Poland prepared for a 24-hour visit by President Barack Obama, that change was most clearly seen in the divergent voices of the older and younger generations of Poles.

For the older generation — who lived through World War II, when the German and Soviet armies wrought destruction and violence on what was a major European cultural center, and who saw no respite as they endured communist rule until 1989 — America was Poland’s great hope and savior.

“I am so proud that the American president is coming here,” said Halina Hajnska, 82, walking home in central Warsaw. “I don’t like Russia and I don’t like Germany. I am very happy that the president is visiting. It’s good for Poland.”

Many elderly Poles expressed similar sentiments. “America is very important to us Poles,” said Maciej Solnik, 78, a retired teacher. “It is good that the American president is coming to visit us.”

But such sympathy and respect for the United States has little resonance among a generation of Poles born during the 1980s or early 1990s. They have no memory of living under communism, of the ban on travel to the West, of the censorship of books and the arts, or of the random detentions and the crushing of free speech.

“For me, the visit by Obama does not matter. The U.S. is far away,” said Marcin Obatski, 27, a telecommunication engineer who was on his lunch break. “Poland is now in Europe. What matters to me are good relations with Germany and Russia, not that it is ever easy with Russia In any case, our place is in Europe.”

Poland joined the E.U. in 2004 and NATO in 1999.

While some young people were proud that Mr. Obama would be here, they said the visit was purely symbolic. “Maybe it is good for Poland because it shows that the U.S. is thinking about this part of Europe,” said Mark Toczylowski, 30, a financial consultant. “But in concrete terms, I have no idea what it means.”

He added: “Frankly, it is Europe that is important to us. I feel secure because Poland has good relations with Europe and is in NATO. We have better relations with Germany, France and the U.K. As always, we have very complex relations with Russia, but even they are improving. Our relations with the U.S. are symbolic.”

The differences among generations are also reflected in the nation’s significant policy changes: Since 2009, Poland’s center-right government has sought to re-balance its relationship with the United States and with Europe.

“There is an attempt to create a new configuration, a kind of ‘new normal’ between the U.S. and Poland,” said Andrew Michta, director of the newly opened Warsaw Office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Instead of being the loyal, unquestionable ally of the United States, the government has embarked on a strategy more focused on trying to shape the foreign policy of Europe.

The fact that Poland, a major contributor to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, declined to join the alliance in imposing a no-flight zone over Libya showed it was determined to define its own national interests and save its resources for European missions.

“We want a relationship in which Poland will be a loyal ally, but not a vassal,” Mr. Sikorski said Friday. “And this is what we now have.”

More than that, Poland, with support from the United States, is particularly focused on the Balkans and the bloc’s relations with its eastern neighbors — Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Moldova.

And Poland, with support from Germany, is working hard to improve relations with Russia.

“Russia is our neighbor. I’m glad the government is trying to improve relations with Russia even though it is not easy,” said Danuta Kowalski, 25, a medical student.

In addition, Poland is pushing for Europe to establish a much stronger defense and security structure as nations cut their own military spending. Poland has placed those ambitions at the top of its agenda once it takes over the European Union’s rotating presidency on July 1.

During his visit here, Mr. Obama will try to conclude a deal for the rotation of F-16 warplanes and C-130 transport planes through Poland. starting in 2013. That would include the permanent presence of a U.S. air force base.

“Like the visit, which is long overdue, these military decisions represent a symbolic commitment to Poland’s defense against a more assertive Russia,” said Eugieniez Smolar, security expert at the Polish Institute of International Affairs. “It should have come sooner.”

A version of this article appears in print on   in The International Herald Tribune. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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