MARGARET WARNER: Did the regime in Poland who knew him, of course, as priest Karol Wojtyla, did they know when he became pope that that was trouble?
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: They certainly knew. I can even tell you an anecdote which I think illustrates that, but I have to warn you it's slightly off-color, I hope that's permissible, but it's true. It's an authentic story. The communist writers in the city of Krakow - the communist writers -- were having a party cell meeting, and a secret police colonel was giving an oration on subversion. And he really referred to Karol Wojtyla, the name of the pope, as being the source of this subversion.
MARGARET WARNER: Before he was pope.
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: Before he was pope. He wasn't pope yet. When all of a sudden, the lady who presides over the buffet-- I assume probably an alcoholic buffet-- bursts into the courtroom and screams loudly "Wojtyla has just been elected pope." The colonel comes to a dead stop. Sitting next to him on the podium was the first party secretary and the second party for the region. The first party secretary was so stunned that he forgot that the microphone was on. He turns to the second party secretary where the colonel is silent and says to him loudly, "My God, my God, from now on we'll have to kiss his ass;" whereupon, the second secretary turns to him and equally loudly says, but in a whimper, "Only... only if he lets us." That tells you how the communist regime felt and immediately recognized that they were now dealing with a formidable force.
(From http://www.jknirp.com/zbig.htm)
