The event was a joint project between the International Spy Museum and the Polish Embassy in Washington.
The Cold War Museum is dedicated to Ryszard Kukliński, a Polish colonel who passed top-secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA between 1971 and 1981. He was evacuated by the Americans to the West shortly before the communist regime imposed martial law in December 1981.
Filip Frąckowiak, the museum’s director, told the virtual tour audience that the most valuable item in the museum’s collection is the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, which Kukliński received between November 1981 and February 1982. “It was the CIA’s highest honor at the time,” he said.
In 1984, Kukliński was sentenced to death in absentia by a military court in Warsaw. The sentence was annulled after the fall of communism, and he visited Poland in 1998. He was awarded honorary citizenships of the cities of Kraków and Gdańsk.
Kukliński died in Florida in 2004 at the age of 74. In 2016, President Andrzej Duda posthumously promoted him to the rank of general.
In addition to Ryszard Kukliński, the exhibition at the Warsaw Cold War Museum highlights the roles of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II in the collapse of communism. It showcases Poland’s contribution to the American victory over Soviet totalitarianism and promotes the traditions of the Polish Army, as well as Poland’s role in the 21st century as part of the NATO alliance.
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Source: muzeumzimnejwojny.en/X/@IntlSpyMuseum/@MZWKuklinski