Articles lands, and parts of Albania. Desperate silenced and the Germans had un- leaders take unscrupulous decisions. conditionally surrendered. The Treaty put under the domination The breakup of Yugoslavia: of Italy some 1,300,000 southern In the USA President Woodrow Wil- its international aspects1 Slavs and without consultation it son, elected in November 1912, knew handed over land which was also about the Treaty of London and when The seeds that grew to break up claimed by Serbia and the Hapsburg he later, on 9 January 1918, called for Yugoslavia were sown at different Slavs for a future Yugoslav state and 'open covenants of peace, openly times, in different places and are eco- gave bogus legitimacy to Italy's inva- arrived at' as the first item in his nomic as well as ethnic, political, sion of Yugoslavia in 1941. Fourteen Point Declaration he had that sociological and religious. Per- infamous Treaty very much in mind. sonalities, as always, have played an While their aspirations were being important role and there have been sold out by France, Britain and Russia, In 1919 most people in Europe were many evil players thriving in the cli- a Yugoslav division was formed in ready to accept the leadership of mate of Communism and in the ab- Macedonia in September 1915 as a President Woodrow Wilson at the sence of democracy. We delude our- signal to Vieima and Berlin of the Peace Conference in Paris. But as it selves, however, if we focus too long determination of the South Slavs - turned out the Conference was a disas- on any one of these many factors. Bosnians, Croats, Serbs, Slovenes, ter and many were left wondering Scapegoating and buck passing have Macedonians and Montenegrins to 'whether, if the war had ended in become a particularly unattractive fight if necessary to join their territo- November 1917, a peace might not feature of the international politics of ries after the war was won. On 5 Oc- have been made which owed less to the 1990s. tober a massive artillery barrage was the unworldliness of Wilson or the the prelude to the Austro-German vindictiveness of Clemenceau; and If the international community is to invasion of Serbia and on that same whether, if that had been the case, the improve its performance in conflict day 13,000 French and British troops sacrifices of the Western Front might prevention and conflict resolution we landed at Salonica, intending to go not have appeared so wholly in vain' . must try to learn from the many les- quickly north to help in Serbia's de- President Wilson, to many people's sons that surround the breakup of fence ; an aspiration thwarted by the surprise, gave up on the principles of Yugoslavia. In focusing on those Turks on the beaches of Gallipoli. nationality and self-determination and factors in which the international com- instead of ditching the Treaty of Lon- munity played a role 1 do not want to As Europe bled and the carnage of the don, as the French privately encour- minimize the primary responsibility of First World War continued a genera- aged him to do, he conceded to a the people who lived in Yugoslavia tion was more than decimated. Al- number of Italian territorial demands. and fought two civil wars in 1941-45 though Australia, Canada and New In the words of Harold Nicolson, who and 1991-95. Yugoslavia was, how- Zealand had sent troops in support of was present in Paris, Wilson had soon ever, a country created by the interna- the Allied war effort, the United States become 'profoundly convinced that if tional community and in that sense the stayed away. Eventually, on 6 April his new Charter of the Rights of Na- international community had a par- 1917, President Wilson signed the tions could be framed and included in ticular responsibility to nurture and Declaration of War passed by Con- the peace Treaties it mattered little sustain, which it failed to discharge. gress after the President in his speech what inconsistencies, what injustice, to a joint session of Congress had said, what flagrant violations of his own The independence of the Serbian state 'The world must be made safe for principles, those Treaties might con- was established at the Congress of democracy' It represented a dramatic tain'. Berlin in 1881. After the Balkan wars reversal of policy, both by President of 1912-13 the region of Kosovo, Wilson personally and by the USA. It had already been agreed in Paris taken from the Serbs by the Ottoman Harry Truman, then farming in Mis- that the USA's Monroe Doctrine, Empire, was added to the Serbian souri, volunteered and travelled to guaranteeing US supremacy in Latin Kingdom. At the start of 1915 mired France to fight with the men of D America, was to remain exempt from down in the battlefront in Europe it Battery. the Covenant. But Article X, the was not surprising that British and commitment to 'preserve against ex- French political leaders looked around At last on 2 April 1918, following ternal aggression the territorial integ- for something to break the stalemate Lloyd George's appeal to President rity and existing political independ- and weaken the Hapsburg Empire. On Wilson, supported by Clemenceau, ence of all members of the League' 26 April 1915 the Treaty of London General Pershing agreed that US left Wilson wide open to the jibe from was signed in secrecy and France, troops could join the British and Theodore Roosevelt, the former Presi- Britain and Russia - still then ruled by French armies in small numbers, prior dent, who was himself not shy about the Tsar - agreed that in exchange for to having their own army. The with- using the USA's weight overseas, that Italy coming into the war on their side drawal of the Russians in 1917 had 'every time a Yugoslav wishes to slap instead of the Austrians, they would little consequence as the US military a Czechoslovak in the face' it would recognize Italy's sovereignty after the might built up and on the 1 lath day of mean that President Wilson would go war over Trieste, large chunks of the l lth month of 1918, after four and to war. Wilson thought that the Senate Dalmatia, most of the Dalmatian is- a quarter years of war, the guns were would never dare to reject the whole elaborate structure of the Treaties of In April 1941 Germany attacked ported the Serbian nationalist resis- Paris. But on 19 November 1919 the Yugoslavia and the German Luftwaffe tance leader, Colonel Mihailovic. Senate voted against. A second vote bombed Belgrade killing between King Peter who had appointed Mi- on 19 March 1920 also failed to pass. 5000 and 17,000 civilians. Hitler pro- hailovic as his Minister of War had a Europe was brought face to face with ceeded to speedily dismember Yugo- friendship with President Roosevelt the separation of powers in the US slavia and created the Independent and during a State Visit by the King to Constitution and the limitations of State of Croatia, NDH, which in- Washington in June 1944 the United Presidential power when the United cluded Bosnia, divided into German States signed an agreement providing States refused to join the League of and Italian spheres of influence, with military aid to Mihailovic. But by Nations. the Croat Fascist Ante Pavelic as its early 1943 Churchill felt, probably puppet ruler. During the next few wrongly, that the Allies had been In 1921 the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats years Pavelic and his armed Ustashas backing, in war effort terms, the and Slovenes came into existence. The committed atrocities and massacres of wrong horse and switched to Tito. At interwar years were a depressing fail- an unspeakable kind. Later Nurem- the Tehran Conference of 28 Novem- ure. Democracy proved a fragile plant berg judged what happened to the ber 1943 Churchill told Stalin and in Germany and Italy. By 1929 when Serbs as genocide. But there was no Roosevelt that Tito was doing 'much Yugoslavia became the official name catharsis because the Croat Ustashi more' for the Allied cause than Mi- of the country, the Serbian monarchy were never faced by their crimes in hailovic and that the Balkan theatre had become a dictatorship and Croat Tito's Yugoslavia. No one knows was one of the areas 'where we could nationalists were deeply disillusioned. exactly how many Serbs were killed. stretch the enemy to the utmost'. On In 1934 a new monarch tried to unify The Serbs say three-quarters of a 6 April 1944, learning that the USA but the fractures within the country million, the Germans say 350,000. was about to send an intelligence were already apparent. Whatever the number, it is hard to mission to Mihailovic at the very deny that this Civil War and these moment when Britain was withdraw- On 3 September 1939 Britain's ulti- killings were an important part of the ing the last of its support, Churchill matum to Germany to suspend their background to the Serb-Croat civil cabled Cairo to delay 'by every rea- attack on Poland expired and Britain war in the former Yugoslavia which sonable means' any arrangements to declared war. Coincidentally President started in 1991 and continued in vari- fly the US mission into Yugoslavia, Franklin Roosevelt made a proclama- ous guises until the cease-fire in Sep- 'the greatest courtesy being used to tion of neutrality similar to that made tember 1995 prior to the Dayton our friends and Allies in every case, by President Wilson in 1914. The Agreement. This absence of catharsis but no transportation'.' He also cabled evacuation from the beaches of Dun- after 1945 was one reason why in Roosevelt to warn that despatching a kirk in June 1940 and the Royal Air 1992 Cyrus Vance and I recom- US mission, 'will show throughout the Force's (RAF's) Battle of Britain in mended establishing a War Crimes Balkans a complete contrariety of August 1940 began to tilt the balance Tribunal so that this time war crimi- action between Britain and the United of opinion about the war in Europe in nals would face prosecution, in the States'. Roosevelt, by and large, the United States. But there was no main Serbs but also Croats and some stayed out of the politics of Yugosla- majority sentiment to become in- Muslims. via during the war, despite King Pe- volved. ter's attempt to involve him as the On 7 December 1941, after 366 Japa- King's relations with Britain deterio- Roosevelt was re-elected on 5 No- nese war planes had launched a sur- rated. The United States, when pres- vember 1940. In January 1941 Roose- prise attack on the US Pacific fleet in sured by Britain to support the Tito- velt introduced the Lend-Lease Bill, Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, the USA de- Subasic Agreement, however decided for financial loans to Britain, to Con- clared war on Japan. It was Germany to neither endorse nor oppose it and at gress. After an acrimonious debate, on 11 December that declared war on Yalta Roosevelt only reluctantly ac- the Bill was eventually pushed the United States, still neutral in cepted its implementation with Tito through on I1 March 1941. Churchill Europe, in what Churchill's biogra- becoming Prime Minister. later described the Lend-Lease Bill in pher described as 'perhaps the greatest his war memoirs as 'the most unsordid error, and certainly the single most Tito's assurances to Churchill about act in the history of any nation'. It decisive act, of the Second World allowing democracy to take root after was generosity surpassed only by the War'.5 the war were barefaced lies, and he post-war Marshall Plan. virtually cocked a snook at Churchill Winston Churchill, in the strategic when in late September 1944 a Rus- On 25 March 1941 an agreement was discussions between US and British sian aircraft landed on the British- signed with Hitler in Vienna linking strategists from 1942-44, always fa- controlled island of Vis and Tito se- Yugoslavia with the Tripartite Pact of voured fighting in North Africa and in cretly took off for Moscow after five Germany, Japan and Italy. For some the Balkans, and this raised suspicions years absence. Churchill angrily dis- time Croat separatism had been fed by in Washington that they were being missed it as 'levanting'. While Stalin Mussolini's Fascist Government but in sucked in to a defence of the British cautioned Tito against further an- defiance of the Pact two days later Empire. tagonizing the British they both plot- Prince Paul was deposed by a pre- ted for Russia to send a tank corps and dominantly Serbian coup d'état. In the Balkans Britain initially sup- to equip a dozen partisan divisions