The Soviets occupied the country and as noted before controlled the elections, including who was allowed to run. After those elections, the Soviets were "invited" to occupy the country.

Exactly the same way Bush is hoping the US will be "invited" to occupy Iraq after the Iraqi Peoples Democratic government, or whatever they could call it, takes over. And the US controls the elections process in Iraq exactly the way the Soviets did in Poland. It all depends upon whose feet are on the ground.

Truman was very frustrated over the way the Soviets were handling the "elections", and ultimately recognized that Britain, France and the US would have to go to war to change the way they were doing it. And that wasn't worth it.

"Free elections" is a term bandied about rather 'freely'. The US and South Vietnam sabotaged the unification elections process in Vietnam because they recognized the South Vietnamese would lose.

So, the treaty called for "free elections", and voting did occur. As we have noted with American imperialism lately, voting does not imply election does not imply democracy.

Arf