Conflicting communications from the U.S. contributed to a "significant political and psychological shock" in Poland over the past week after the U.S. canceled the planned deployment of thousands of American troops to the country, Politico reports, citing a U.S. diplomatic cable, according to UNN.
Details
President Donald Trump reversed that decision this week, but the political damage to the relationship may be difficult to repair. Polish officials viewed the cancellation of the deployment as a breach of trust, according to a U.S. Embassy Warsaw cable released Wednesday.
About 4,000 troops were scheduled to deploy, mostly to Poland and some to neighboring countries, before the Pentagon halted the deployment on May 13. Trump reversed course on Thursday, saying he would send 5,000 troops to Poland, though it is unclear where they would come from.
Trump announced the deployment of 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland21.05.26, 23:59
According to the cable, which is marked confidential but unclassified and signed by Tom Rose, the U.S. Ambassador to Poland, Polish reactions in the interim were "disappointment," "surprise," and "genuine alarm."
"The dominant emotional reaction is a perception of betrayal, especially given President Trump's repeated public characterizations of Poland as America's most reliable and committed ally in Europe," says the cable, whose recipients included the office of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The cable adds that inconsistent U.S. messaging dating back to the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden also contributed to the problem. Biden approved the rotations in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
"The rotational deployments initiated after the 2022 Russian invasion were never intended to provide a permanent stationing, but this reality was never consistently or effectively communicated publicly," the cable says. "The temporary rotational presence gradually came to be understood in Poland as a semi-permanent security guarantee, which we did very little to counteract."
Asked for comment, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Trump's decision to send troops was ultimately based on a broader strategy for the region. "The President has simultaneously restored peace through strength while successfully encouraging European allies to take greater responsibility for their own defense," Kelly said.
The decision to cancel the troop deployment hurt Poland's conservative President Karol Nawrocki, one of Trump's political allies. A senior aide to Nawrocki told the publication Friday that "chaotic communication" in Washington has left allies in Warsaw and elsewhere in the dark about American plans.
The cable says last week's crisis risks "fueling pressure to abandon American defense systems, accelerating the pace of EU defense integration at America's expense, and spreading anti-American political and media narratives throughout the region."
In the cable, the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw offered several suggestions on how to counter the negative fallout. One was to reduce the large rotational armored presence while establishing a "smaller but clearly sustainable" role for U.S. forces. Such a presence in Poland could focus on "command and control, logistics, [surveillance], pre-positioned equipment, sustainment, air defense, and rapid reinforcement capabilities."
Rutte welcomed Trump's decision to deploy 5,000 US troops to Poland22.05.26, 21:06