Tito

Tito (born Josip Broz, 1892–1980) was a Croat and the leader of Yugoslavia, which existed from 1943 until 1991. Tito spent much time in the Soviet Union and became a member of the Comintern, returned to Yugoslavia during World War II and led the Yugoslav Partisans. After World War II he defied Stalin and founded the Non-Aligned Movement. He held Yugoslavia together; after his death it disintegrates into chaos and civil war.

Leading the Yugoslav Partisans

In 1941 the armies of Germany, aided by Italy, Hungary and Bolgaria, invaded Yugoslavia and swiftly reduced it to submission. The government of Yugoslavia joined other Allied Powers exile governments in London, became a signatory of the Atlantic Charter, and held recognition as the legitimate government of Yugoslavia. Colonel Draja Mikhailovitch remained behind in Yugoslavia to lead the Chetnik army which quickly started collaborating with Axis forces. The chetniks' prime goals were the dectruction of communism and the fight for a Greater Serbia (chetniks often slaughtered Croats and Bosnians on nationally-mixed teritories).

The U.S. Office of War Information began spreading information that the leader of the chetniks Mikhailovitch was an ineffectual leader with small forces.

This campaign against Mikhailovitch and the promotion of Tito were repeated in other mainstream magazines for the American public's consumption. Frank Gervasi in Collier's wrote how Tito led 250,000 men while Mikhailovitch had no more than 10,000. The Yugoslav government - in - exile in London continued to support Mikhailovitch. The British Foreign Office in its dealings with the Josef Stalin closed the British Broadcasting Company to the Yugoslav government - in - exile and a little later put the broadcast facilities at the disposal of the Partisans of Tito.

President Franklin Roosevelt paid tribute to Mikhailovitch in 1942. But at the Teheran conference, as part of the policy of appeasing Stalin, Roosevelt and Winston Churchill abandoned Mikhailovitch completely and yielded to Soviet Union’s choice of Tito. Shortly after the Teheran conference, Churchill in a speech in February 1944 indicated that the allies were no longer sending supplies to Mikhailovitch. Two months later King Peter, the Yugoslavian Head of State, was forced to dismiss Premier Purich, which meant the entire cabinet in which Mikhailovitch was Minister of War. The Communist Subasich was made Prime Minister. With the subsequent Russian invasion and the aid of American supplies, the Communists and Tito took control. Mikhailovitch was sentenced to death after the war as a collaborator.

Break-up with Moscow

"Stop sending people to kill me," Tito once wrote to Joseph Stalin. "If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send a second." Stalin expelled the Yugoslav Communist Party on June 28, 1948. Tito was perhaps the only person who stood up to Stalin and survived.

Cold War

Marshall Tito in 1971 during a visit to the Nixon White House.

Further reading

• Barnett, Neil. Tito (2006) excerpt and text search
• Beloff, Nora. Tito's Flawed Legacy: Yugoslavia and the West

since 1939. (1986). 287 pp.

• Djilas, Milovan. Tito: The Story from Inside (1980) highly revealing memoir by top aide.
• Vucinich, Wayne S., ed. At the Brink of War and Peace: The Tito-Stalin Split in a Historic Perspective. (1982). 341 pp.
• West, Richard. Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia. (1995). 448 pp. excerpt and text search