It was finally agreed that if the Soviets did invade Poland, sanctions would be imposed, but the pipelines would not be cancelled. In December 1981, the Polish crisis came to an abrupt climax with a military coup d'état bringing a new government in Warsaw that declared martial law and banned Solidarność. Halstead stated that he like anyone else on the NATO Council were taken by surprise by the denouement of the Polish crisis, but at least the NATO nations had a plan in place for imposing sanctions on the Soviet Union, which was immediately put into action after the coup in Warsaw.
