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BUILDING TITO LAND: HOW THE UNITED STATES LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LIVE WITH AIDING COMMUNIST YUGOSLAVIA, 1948-1963

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posted on 2023-07-13, 14:29 authored by Louie Milojevic

Of the many early Cold War problems and predicaments U.S. policymakers faced, few were more complex to manage than the public diplomatic rupture between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in June 1948. Yugoslavia's expulsion from the Eastern bloc - or the Tito-Stalin split as it came to be known - stunned Washington insiders and the American citizens they served. This was the first time that Soviet communist domination had been openly defied by what many thought was the most loyal communist satellite. How Americans understood and ultimately tolerated what would become an extensive and controversial decade-long aid commitment to Yugoslavia is the broad focus of this dissertation. Setting aside the conventional logic of East- West confrontation, the study finds that the extension of aid to Yugoslavia was not merely a geostrategic exercise but also a public national encounter that confused, intrigued, and divided Cold War Americans. In shaping and sustaining an aid program, the research shows how advocates and opponents of U.S. assistance converged and clashed but nevertheless managed to stay the course of unconditional aid by publicly reinventing Yugoslavia into a progressive Cold War middle ground - a Tito Land whose cause, character, and course consistently resonated with its American benefactor.

History

Publisher

ProQuest

Language

English

Committee co-chairs

Max Friedman; Peter Kuznick

Committee member(s)

Eric Lohr; David Foglesong

Degree discipline

History

Degree grantor

American University. College of Arts and Sciences

Degree level

  • Doctoral

Degree name

Ph.D. in History, American University, May 2023

Local identifier

Milojevic_american_0008E_12036.pdf

Media type

application/pdf

Pagination

348 pages

Call number

Thesis 11372

MMS ID

99186660196004102

Submission ID

12036

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