Tito’s group commits Yugoslavia to a military alliance with NATO
In the 1990s, Tito’s henchman General Franjo Tudjman, UDB chief Jovica Stanisic, and UDB agent Hashim Thaci invited NATO to deploy troops in Yugoslavia for bolstering the fascist forces in Yugoslavia. Such a Titoist-NATO alliance takes root in the 1950s, when Tito’s regime officially established a military alliance pact with monarcho-fascist Greece and committed Yugoslavia to fight on NATO’s side during a Third World War.
The History of the USSR & the Peoples’ Democracies
Chapter 12, Section 5 (C12S5)
Saed Teymuri
If Danubian ‘Federalism’ and German-dominated Pan-Europeanism were the first two steps towards directly subordinating Yugoslavia to the US-led bloc, the third step was Atlanticism itself: joining the Atlantic Pact also known as NATO. Tito’s alliance with monarcho-fascist Greece and Turkey, the two countries not to be in the Danubian Federation, was the pathway towards that third step. As a US intelligence memorandum titled ‘Status Report on the Greek, Turkish, Yugoslav Military Alliance’ stated,:
Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia has accepted the principle of liaison between the projected tripartite alliance and NATO…. (‘STATUS REPORT ON THE GREEK, TURKISH, YUGOSLAV MILITARY ALLIANCE’, Office of Current Intelligence, CIA, June 29, 1954, p. 1) (IMG)
Israel was to be added to this military alliance of Yugoslavia, Turkey, and Greece. Yugoslavia pushed vigorously for Israel’s inclusion into the anti-Soviet ‘Balkan Pact’ alliance. As a matter of fact, as confirmed by Jacob Abadi, a professor of history at the US Air Force Academy, in 1954,:
In his conversation with Ezra Yoran, Israel's Minister in Yugoslavia, a Yugoslav Foreign Ministry official argued … that his country was willing to support Israel's candidacy to the Balkan Alliance. (Israel and the Balkan States, Middle Eastern Studies, Jacob Abadi, 1996, p. 298) (IMG{Israel})
In this anti-Soviet Balkan alliance, Yugoslavia achieved important aspects of step one – the creation of an anti-Soviet alliance in Eastern Europe – and moved towards steps two and three – alliances with the rest of Europe and North America. “There is also reason to believe,” said a US National Security Staff study:
that through this association Tito hopes inter alia to gain some of the advantages of NATO membership…. Tito has clearly manifested a desire for firmer ties with other nations which would give him a feeling of security beyond that entailed in previous military arrangements. (…). The “Balkan Entente” has to some extent given him the political ties he desires, and in this way his confidence in and willingness for military planning with the West has been bolstered. (NSC Staff Study on United States Policy Towards Yugoslavia, US NSC, 1954. In: “U.S. DIPLOMATIC RECORDS ON RELATIONS WITH YUGOSLAVIA DURING THE EARLY COLD WAR, 1948-1957”, Nick Ceh, 2002, pp. 401-402) (IMG)
It must be remembered that the Yugoslav regime’s shift towards an alliance with NATO occurred at a time in which Tito’s fascist gang had already been thoroughly exposed and unmasked by the USSR and the Peoples’ Democracies. The rise to power of the Titoists in Moscow in 1953, however, meant that the project to unmask Tito’s group was to almost cease, and hence Tito’s group could re-mask itself as ‘socialist’ and ‘anti-imperialist’. In such a circumstance, the Belgrade fascists aimed not to carry forward with the original plan to overtly join NATO and instead just went back to playing their old game of presenting themselves as ‘neutrals’ lying in between the pro-fascist and anti-fascist camps.
Tito had no choice but to declare that he did not intend to join NATO. “Despite this desire for political assurances,” the NSC document continued,:
for the moment Tito probably means what he says when he publicly denies any intention to seek membership in NATO. At present he has almost no alternative to this position…. (NSC Staff Study on United States Policy Towards Yugoslavia, US NSC, 1954. In: “U.S. DIPLOMATIC RECORDS ON RELATIONS WITH YUGOSLAVIA DURING THE EARLY COLD WAR, 1948-1957”, Nick Ceh, 2002, p. 402) (IMG)
Nonetheless,:
Tito has gone far in parallel directions to assure Yugoslavia the benefits of NATO. (NSC Staff Study on United States Policy Towards Yugoslavia, US NSC, 1954. In: “U.S. DIPLOMATIC RECORDS ON RELATIONS WITH YUGOSLAVIA DURING THE EARLY COLD WAR, 1948-1957”, Nick Ceh, 2002, p. 402) (IMG)
Naturally, NATO, as the bigger historical-material force, reaped far greater benefits than the smaller force, Tito’s fascist regime. During a 1954 North Atlantic Council session, the representatives of the Kingdom of Greece:
Stated [that the] alliance committed Yugoslavia to be on our side if attack made on other NATO power without formal commitment to Yugoslavia by NATO. (Subject: NAC Discussion Balkan Alliance, July 29, 1954. In: 760.5/7-2954: Telegram, The United States Permanent Representative on the North Atlantic Council (Hughes) to the Department of State, Top Secret, Paris, July 29, 1954, p. 1. In: Foreign Relations of the United States, United States Department of State, p. 671) (IMG)
All of these were for the purposes of joining the NATO for its war on the USSR and the Peoples’ Democracies. Again, note that imperialist France was a rogue state within NATO, in the sense that French imperialism aimed to form an alliance with the progressive anti-imperialist forces in the struggle to break up the Anglo-American-German imperialist alliance, the rivals of French finance capital….
Anyways, a document written by the Israeli foreign minister Moshe Sharett, in his message to Eytan, discussed how Israel could join NATO in the fight against the USSR. In this document, the case of Yugoslavia was regarded as a historical precedent which Israel could follow in terms of forming the military bonds with the US-led camp. In the midst of mentioning the case of Yugoslavia as a precedent for Israel to follow, the document by Sharett nonetheless confirmed Yugoslavia’s anti-Soviet WWIII alliance with the NATO:
the Yugoslav Chief of General Staff visited Washington and met with the Chiefs of Staff, and Tito declared that Yugoslavia would fight with the West. (M. Sharett (New York) to W. Eytan, September 30, 1951. In: DOCUMENTS ON THE FOREIGN POLICY OF ISRAEL, State of Israel Archives, Vol. 6, 1951, Edited by Yemima Rosenthal, Companion Volume, p. 293) (IMG{Israel})
Click here for Screenshots of Source Documents
_________________________________
Join Mailing List by
emailing sovinform.tech@gmail.com
Place the following phrase in your
email subject/title ‘Join Mailing List’.
No further comment necessary.
_________________________________
Follow Sovinform on
_________________________________
The book The History of the USSR & the Peoples’ Democracies
is now available for easy print.
_________________________________