Pivot in the Yugoslav military policy (1956–1961)

Abstract

On the base of the documents of Yugoslav and US origin, this paper treats the beginning of pivot of Yugoslav military policy towards the cooperation with the USSR in the second half of the 1950s. In the period between 1951 and 1958, Yugoslavia was receiving military aid from the Western countries, particularly the USA. That support provided the source for both maintaining the combat readiness of Yugoslav troops, as well as modernization of their arsenal. On the other hand, such an aid could have easily become a way into closer bonding to NATO, which was the outcome Tito definitely had not wanted. He used the opportunity which emerged after Stalin’s death to step into the process of normalization of relations with the USSR, while maintaining close economic and certain level of military ties with the West. The latter, however, slowly faded with time – The Balkan Pact with Greece and Turkey remained inefficient, while Yugoslavia unilaterally stepped out from the program of the US military aid in late 1957. Although it had not meant the immediate turn towards the military cooperation with the East, such policy had soon become a reality. Diversifying its orientations into three main categories - close political associating with the “Third world” countries, preserving its economic relationships with the West and opening the chapter of strategic cooperation in domain of military equipping with the USSR, Yugoslavia additionally consolidated its position between the confronted blocks.