I’m very interested in learning about the Chetniks, although not much information seems to be available that likes to dig deeper than Tito’s dubious claims of them being Fascist collaborators.
I wonder if the Chetniks had been backed instead of the Partisans, if Yugoslavia would have joined NATO.
Ping
Bookmarked at Serbianna for later.
Throughout the first part of this article he addresses the term “you” interchangeably to Winnie and to the collective British leadership between the wars.
This is pretty unfair to WC, who was excluded from the leadership during this period largely because he was a “warmonger” who wanted to resist Germany.
If you have not read it, you should look at Evelyn Waugh’s “Sword of Honour” trilogy. They were perhaps his greatest novels, although less well known than his earlier novels.
The theme of all three was the breakdown of Christian civilization, as the Second World War basically became a struggle between Hitler and Stalin, Nazis and Communists, so there was really no “right” side to support. And the victims were betrayed rather than saved.
The first novel focuses on England, the second on the fiasco when the British surrendered Crete to the Nazis, and the third focuses on the betrayals and stupidity that took place in Yugoslavia.
The title “Sword of Honour” is ironic—it is a sword that Stalin sent to Churchill, housed in the British Museum, an indication that the ancient meaning of “honour” was no longer understood in England by either party. The hero wants to find honor by fighting in the war—but there is no honor in defeating Hitler, if it necessarily means fighting on behalf of Stalin.
The third novel, centered in Serbia, pretty much makes the point made here, only adding that Roosevelt sent agents to ensure that the Brits betrayed their real allies.
Talk about the treatment of Serbs and the Balkans after WWII reminds me of the worst betrayal connected with WWII. The Yalta Accord. One of FDR's worst decisions.
Many fined people were as a result of Yalta condemned to Commie subjection for a generation plus.