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80motivation of the Slavs. In 1984 I was invited to a Battle of Britain celebration at Alconbury. There were a couple of Polish veterans of the battle present, effectively as guests of honour. The initial formality having relaxed somewhat, as tends to happen at events being hosted, or lubricated, by Phantom crews, I was eventually cornered by these two old Polish pilots. I was wearing uniform, of course, and, with tears in his eyes, one of them said, %u2018Young man, what are you doing to set my country free?%u2019 I was doing quite a bit actually, but all that I was able to do was mumble a few words about the Cold War. It didn%u2019t seem to me, in 1984, remotely possible that Poland would ever be free and I was impressed by the faith that these men had and that had endured for so long. Five years later, of course, it happened, and I just hope that they had lived to see it. But what I wanted to get across was the devotion and commitment involved and the fact that they had kept it going for so long. %u0018%u00177%u0015%u0016%u0016? The Polish national identity is felt so strongly that it has the intensity of a virtual religion. The reason being that that their freedom has been taken from them so often. As a result they will %u2018export%u2019 their principles, and their nationality, and fight for them under other flags. They will fight for the French, or for the Americans, or for the British %u2013%u2018for your freedom and for ours%u2019. When the Warsaw Pact collapsed, more or less over a weekend, it took them by surprise as much as anyone else. They were suddenly free, but they were ready for that. One of the characteristics of Poles is that, until recently at least, they did not set much store by material things %u2013 because they can be taken from you. They carried their nationality in their minds and in their hearts and they taught their children to believe that wherever they stood, they were Poles. %u0009%u00131? This sort of thing goes back to the Seventeenth Century, or probably even earlier %u2013 Napoleon certainly used Polish troops. The Polish psyche is indeed an interesting phenomenon. As to Czechs %u2013 I attended a conference in Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s, shortly after the Wall came down. They had yet to adjust to a more relaxed way of doing things and some Communist8style practices still remained, as I was to find out. An honour guard had been posted in the conference hall to protect the flags that were on display. I was at the lectern, half way through delivering my paper