Original scientific paper
The Yugoslav Bomb - What is the Truth? A Contribution to the Discussion
Vladimir Knapp
Abstract
Writings appear in the media repeatedly, both in scientific and political journals, discussing and speculating on the question of the Yugoslav atomic bomb program after 1945. Without access to relevant documents, simplified judgments are made, sometimes based on general views and attitudes to the second Yugoslavia. Without the knowledge of complex relations in a multinational state, where the delicate balance between ethnicities with very different levels of developments and different interests was maintained by the Communist Party under Tito, misconclusions can be made. Actions of some internal political groups or fractions can be interpreted as state policy. External policies of non-alignment and the confrontation of two blocks during the Cold War had their consequences on the internal political situation in Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was an important country for both sides of the Cold War, trying to increase its influence by both legal and undercover methods. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the question of the alleged Yugoslav atomic bomb on the basis of documents in possession of the authors and their participation in certain relevant activities. Available documents are not sufficient for definite conclusions about the protagonists, motives and achievements in the plan for the Yugoslav atomic bomb; however, they indicate directions for further research and offer tentative conclusions, at
least.
Keywords
International relations; Nuclear strategy; Yugoslavia; Foreign policy
Hrčak ID:
103304
URI
Publication date:
15.4.2013.
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