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YUGOSLAVIA
WITHOUT TITO
Ever since the end of World War
//,
one powerful individual has held
this patchwork Balkan nation together. Europe could be in for
tumultuous change in the post-Tito era.
E
UROPE'S
last great
national leader in
World War Il–
Yugoslavia 's President
Josip Broz Tito-lies
near death, as this arti–
cle goes to press.
Tito's
22
mi l lion
countrymen are deeply
concerned, especially
in the aftermath of the
Soviet move into
Afghanistan.
In the post-Tito pe–
riod, will Moscow try
to force communist–
but
independenUy
communist-Yugosla–
via back into its East
European satellite ero–
pire from which it was
expelled in 1948?
If
so, will Belgrade be
forced to look else–
where, especially to the West, for
protection?
The world- and especially West–
ern Europe--anxiously awaits the
answer to these questions.
Tito Was Yugoslavia
President Tito was a world states–
man, highly respected by both East
and West. As such, he brought pres–
tige and prominence to Yugoslavia
beyond what it would have normally
received, considering its size and geo–
graphicallocation. Above all, howev–
er, T ito was the "father" of the
modern Yugoslav state. He was its
prime architect as well as guarantor
of its independence. More than any
other individual, he was responsible
4
by
Gene H. Hogberg
HUNGARY
for forging what there is of a com–
mon Yugoslav consciousness.
Through his energies, he brought
stability to that part of the world–
the Balkans- historically subject to
great instability. Because of this
fact, the whole of southern Europe
has Jargely been at peace for 35
years.
A semiofficial b'iography of Tito's
life, which this author obtained in
Belgrade in 1975, sums up T ito's
pivota! role as follows: "The centu–
ries-old dream of many of our politi–
cians, ideologists and reformers of
the closely related peoples inhabitíng
the compact area between the Dan–
ube and the Adriatic has been real–
ized ... by Josip Broz Ti to. Thus
Tito is all of us; Tito is
Yugoslavia."
Stood Up to Hitler,
Stalin
Tito was a man of
enormous leadership
capacity, both mili–
tarily and politically.
During World War
II,
he assembled Yugosla–
via's antifascist resist–
ance forces from
scratch. Lacking food,
equipment and arma–
ments for his partisan
bands, Tito resorted to
guerrilla ' tactics
against the German
and I talian occupiers
and their collabora–
tors.
By the genius of
Tito's strategy (he was
named marshal of the Yugoslav
army in 1943) the partisans effec–
tively tied down 500,000 enemy sol–
diers, severely crippling Hitler's total
war effort.
Afterward, in the early dark days
of the postwar period, Tito stood up
to Soviet Premier Josef Stalin's
naked attempt to oust him as head of
the Yugoslav Communist Party.
Josip Broz Tito had been "con–
verted" to communism during the
First World Wa r while a prisoner of
war in Russia (he was a sergeant in
the Austro-Hungarían army). He
was swept up in the emotional tide
of the Bolshevik Revolution . Re–
turning home, he later took the
name
Tito
during his years in the
The
PLAIN TRUTH