SJEDINJENE AMERIČKE DRŽAVE I JUGOSLOVENSKA 1948.
THE UNITED STATES AND THE YUGOSLAV 1948

Summary/Abstract: The dispute between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union marked a change in Yugoslavia’s international position, as well as a change in the American government’s policy towards Yugoslavia. As up till then, the American government continued to regard Yugoslavia only as an element in the function of the primary Soviet-American relations but the means of achieving American objectives were now determined in an essentially different manner. With its policy of »watchful waiting« the American government endeavored, by not jeopardizing the position in which the Yugoslav government found itself, to make its example sufficiently attractive to other communist parties for them to rebel against in the indisputable authority of the Soviet Union. Concrete measures for achieving American interests in the dispute between Yugoslavia and Soviet Union, were formulated in the policy of »keeping Tito afloat«. The essence of this policy was to offer limited economic assistance to the Yugoslav government so that it could successfully withstand Soviet pressure and in this way to provide conditions for the accomplishment of American objectives: separating other countries where communist parties were in power from the Soviet Union and preventing establishing pro-Soviet Yugoslav government which could jeopardize American interests related to geostrategic and geopolitical significance of Yugoslavia. At the same time, the American government did not renounce its long-term aims concerning Yugoslavia and it considered its policy of »keeping Tito afloat« only as a tactical about-turn in the United States global foreign political strategy. Therefore, throughout this period, it endeavored to keep Congress and American public opinion informed as little as possible about the concrete measures connected with the accomplishment of this policy. For the Yugoslav government, the improvement in the relations with the United States signified the further progress of socialism and safeguarding the country’s independence. Neither the American government nor the Yugoslav government renounced their long-term foreign political objectives. In this manner, as a result of the logic of cold war relations between two powers, the relations between the United States and Yugoslavia began to improve and for the first time after the II World War, were based on the principles of international law governing relations between states.

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