Another Cap Weinberger Story

I enjoyed this anecdote about Cap Weinberger. Stephen O'Connor was a conventional-thinking PR guy when he travelled to Eastern Europe with Cap in the late 90s. He was stunned at how the former Sec.Def. was treated like a rock star, and it changed his view of Reagan & America. Relating all this, he recounts this story, which took place as they were leaving an event at the U.S. Ambassador's Residence in Warsaw:

As we glided down the driveway, I remembered that Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, who had put Poland under martial law in 1980, lived across the street from the ambassador's house. "Cap, Gen. Jaruzelski lives right there," I said, pointing at the general’s front door, which was lit only by the lighted button on the buzzer. "Did you ever imagine that you would be in a position to be behind the Iron Curtain with the opportunity to simply walk up to that man's door, ring his buzzer, and give him a piece of your mind?"

Weinberger flashed his characteristic, nonchalant grin. "Well," he said, "you'd just better tell the driver to pick it up a bit.""Why?" I asked, simultaneously noticing that the thick-mustachioed, Walesa-like limo driver was looking at Cap into the rear-view mirror. Heretofore, this driver had not revealed he spoke English.

"The general does not like me very much," Weinberger answered.Again I asked why."At one point the general actually attempted to petition the World Court to sue me in 1981 for defamation of character and other assorted legalistic charges," he said.When I asked what in the world he could have said that got Jaruzelski so upset, the driver was hanging on every word.

"I called him a Russian general in a Polish uniform," said Weinberger.With that, the Polish driver let out a vengeful belly laugh—right as we passed the former puppet general’s ugly house. He then revved the engine and sped us away from the scene all of us laughing across time and cultures.