2022.12.23 Will Poland Be The Next Proxy-I Think Yes
Contrary to many vatniks' claims the West didn't initially want Poland or other Central Eastern Europe countries in NATO. There was much hesitation concerning the matter and even more fears about "what would Russia do". Former Soviet colonies were offered participation in the "Partnership for Peace" initiative, a framework of cooperation with NATO which however did not grant the post-communist countries adequate security guarantees.
There was much concern in CEE countries that the soft promise of NATO membership will not materialize. And then our president, Lech Walesa started publicly talking about getting nuclear weaponry for Poland, if other ways of gaining security wouldn't be available. Of course, if we actually tried to seriously do it, we would b lose a lot of Western goodwill... but the risk was there and we had enough post-soviet know-how and scientists at home, to actually achieve that.
At this point the West understood that they have to get more serious about negotiations with CEE countries. Soon we got our NATO perspective and invitation to 'individual dialogue'. In 1997 main negotiations took place and in 1999 first countries of the region - Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary joined the Alliance, paving the way for other post-soviet states.