Professional paper
Death of the Yugoslav People`s Army and the War of Succession
Robert Niebuhr
Abstract
The death of Yugoslavia took place in tandem with the death of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA). Initially, the JNA sought to maintain the integrity of the federation but soon unraveled along ethnic lines. The JNA’s internal transition thus serves as a microcosm of the process of Yugoslav dismemberment. On a personal level, soldiers with mixed ethnicities had to choose allegiances. That struggle mirrored certain choices by civilians, but on a much more troubling
level—namely, who to shoot at and why? Finally, no discussion of the breakup of Yugoslavia can go without mentioning the role of the League of Communists. The relationship between the army, party, and state helped create fissures and further confusion, especially with the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. How could a party-run army and state peacefully transition to some form of a multi-party state and mixed economy? The troubles that plagued former Yugoslavia and the JNA, especially during the 1980s, created a mixture that helped foster disaster and death at all levels.
Keywords
Yugoslav People’s Army; Yugoslavia, Milošević; Slovenia; Communist Party
Hrčak ID:
2751
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2004.
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