Will Obama Sacrifice Poland's Interests in Moscow?

President Obama arrives in Moscow today to press the “reset button” in Russian-American relations. Already there is exaggerated talk of a “nuclear breakthrough” in cutting warheads for long-range missiles. But the real test of the president’s diplomacy will be missile defense.

After the Russian invasion of Georgia last summer, the United States pledged to shore up the precarious position of Poland, which has so often been used by Russia as a doormat, by building a missile-defense base there for ten long-range interceptor missiles and by setting up a radar station in the Czech Republic.

Secretary of State Rice observed at the time of the invasion that Washington has a “firm treaty guarantee to defend Poland’s territory as if it was the territory of the United States.” The decision to set up defensive weapons was intended to lessen the likelihood that America would ever have to fulfill its obligation to go to war on Poland’s behalf, as England and France did in 1939.