Russia. Soviet Union. Serbia. Yugoslavia. Mihailovich. Tito. Stalin. Broz. Dzugashvili. Brezhnev. Putin. There’s enough going on for any generalization to need a few clauses added.
Although the Yugoslavs prepared for a Western contingency, the main Yugoslav war plan was always directed against a potential Soviet-directed invasion from the Warsaw Pact, particularly Hungary.
I think that all too often people don't understand is that there was a civil war going on between the Serbs, Croats, etc. within a broader war - that broader war would be WWII.
Mihailovic: Led the anti-communist and anti-Nazi resistance forces known as the Chetniks. He was betrayed by Communists in the OSS and SAS re their pro-Tito reports, thus leading to the US and England abandoning their support of him and throwing that support to Tito and his forces. This led to the destruction of the Chetniks and a communist takeover of Yugoslavia.
Tito led the communist dominated Partisans (not all Partisans were communists). Rep. Larry McDonald (D-GA), who was killed in the Soviet shoot-down of KAL 007, put an article in the Congressional Record revealing that Tito’s forces often made secret deals with the Germans in which each pledged not to attack each other in certain regions.
More research on this issue is definitely needed.
Yugoslavia was never “independent” of the Soviet Union. Seems that Tito and Moscow made it seem that way. The Senate Internal Security Subcom., Sen. Judiciary Committee, many years ago, put out a major study roughly entitled “The Myths of Titoism”. Worth reading.
Yugoslavia was the jumping off point for 3 Soviet divisions if they had to go to Egypt’s defense in the 1973 October/Yom Kippur War. The debate is whether Tito could have prevented the Soviets from using their air bases if they had refused them permission to use them. Worth more research unless there is a major work already out there on this issue.
Need to know more about Tito’s assassins in the post WW2 period. Also about any aid they gave to Hanoi during its wars of aggression in SE Asia.
Tanjug did have good news coverage of the Cultural Revolution in Red China. Perhaps they were helping Moscow keep its leadership position of the Communist Bloc while Red China devoured itself.
Need to know if Tito’s govt was involved in heroin smuggling in Europe. Vaguely remember something about this from the late 1960’s or early 1970’s.
Oh, the US OSS and the British SAS in Yugoslavia had so many communists in them that almost all the reports on how great Tito was were the only ones to get to the State Dept. and the Foreign Ministry.
Bomber pilot George McGovern gave a glowing report on how great the Partisans were when he was forced to land his plan on a Partisan-held island in the Adriatic. He became a great propagandist for the Tito regime even before he got to Congress.
I hope that I have given you some tidbits to think about and to research.