Wojciech Jaruzelski had sent Eugeniusz Molczyk to confer with Vice President George H. W. Bush and Bush had agreed with Molczyk that martial law was the lesser of two evils. Whether this meeting with the American vice president occurred is disputed. While it is erroneously cited, Harvard historian Mark Kramer has pointed out that no documents support Jaruzelski's claim. Jaruzelski was chiefly responsible for the imposition of martial law in Poland on 13 December 1981 in an attempt to crush the pro-democracy movements, which included Solidarity, the first non-Communist trade union in Warsaw Pact history. Subsequent years saw his government and its
Wojciech Jaruzelski he was elected to be a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party. He benefited from the antisemitic campaign in the army in the 1960s, during which more than 1000 Jewish officers were demoted or expelled. Even the non-Jewish minister of defence, Marshal Marian Spychalski was persecuted. Jaruzelski obtained his post. In August 1968 General Jaruzelski as the defence minister ordered the 2nd Army under General Florian Siwicki (of the "LWP") to invade Czechoslovakia, resulting in military occupation of northern Czechoslovakia until 11 November 1968 when under his orders and agreements with the Soviet Union his