The Yugoslav Crisis and the West: Avoiding “Vietnam" and Blundering into “Abyssinia"
The Yugoslav Crisis and the West: Avoiding “Vietnam" and Blundering into “Abyssinia"

Summary/Abstract: East Europeans have repeatedly looked to the West with expectations that proved to be unrealistic. In 1848, for example, the revolutionary government of the secessionist Republic of Hungary hoped to secure diplomatic recognition from the Western powers, beginning with England, but was immediately rebuffed by Whitehall. Fifteen years later, Polish insurgents in the so-called Congress Kingdom of the Russian Empire were buoyed up by hopes that the signatories of the Vienna treaty of 1815 would intervene on their behalf. Instead, France, Britain, and Austria registered some protests in March and April, backed off in embarrassment, and finally produced a six-point denarche in June 1863 which largely disappointed the Poles. After London and Vienna blocked a French effort to convene an international conference to discuss the Polish situation, the Powers essentially left Russia alone to deal with the Poles as it saw fit. [...]

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