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Page 4B THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1976
Soviets might take Yugoslavia if Tito leaves office
Celebr
Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — Josip
Broz Tito has forged a single nation
from eight nationalities and six lan
guage groups. As president he has
held it together under communism
for 30 years. The question now is
what happens after he is gone.
At 84 and despite health prob
lems, the Yugoslav leader still is the
man to whom ultimate decisions are
referred. But there are reports he
may retire to test how the transition
process works.
Some fear Tito’s death may un
leash disrupting forces that have
been dormant during his three dec
ades of rule. There also is wide
spread fear that the Soviet Union
may use transition problems to pull
Yugoslavia back into the Soviet fold
from which it broke away 28 years
ago.
Experts agree that political stabil
ity would be the best guarantee
against any Soviet threat to this
country.
The first Yugoslav state broke up
during World War II when Germany
and Italy partitioned it and installed
puppet regimes. Tito led his partisan
troops to victory over both occupy
ing armies and laid the foundations
of the new state.
There seems to be no single man
influential enough to inherit Tito’s
unchallenged role and popularity.
However, he has devised an intri
cate machinery in an attempt to get
around this while accommodating
the interests of the various national
groups.
Since 1972 Yugoslavia’s top execu
tive body is represented by a collec
tive “Presidency” including a
member for each of the six republics
and two autonomous provinces. The
Presidency is led by Tito, who has
been named president for life or
until he decides to retire.
Once Tito has left, the Presidency
will elect annually a president for a
one-year term, as provided for by
the 1974 constitution.
Members of the Presidency are
elected by the legislatures of the re
publics and autonomous provinces,
for a five-year term.
The governments of the six repub
lics and two provinces enjoy broad
autonomy in internal matters.
But a separatist trend has per
sisted among the Croatians, the sec
ond largest national group after the
Serbians. Tito has been hitting hard
against it, however, and a drastic
purge ousted nationalists from the
Croatian Communist party cadres in
1971.
“The idea of a separatist state lin
gers on in the mind of Croatian intel
lectuals,” says Milovan Djilas, Tito’s
wartime comrade who was later sent
to prison, “but any organized nation
alist movement can be easily broken
up. They are isolated from the liber
als in Croatia and from other Yugos
lav nations.”
The most popular among the
members of the Presidency are Ed
vard Kardelj of Slovenia and
Croatia’s Vladimir Bakaric who both
fought alongside Tito in the 1943-
1944 partisan war.
Bakaric is reported to be ailing
while Kardelj has recovered from
surgery for an undisclosed ailment.
Kardelj might be Tito’s choice to
succeed him as party president.
Kardelj was the No. 2 man after
Tito in the Yugoslav delegation dur
ing the three-day visit of Soviet
leader Leonid I. Brezhnev in mid-
November.
During his talks with Tito,
Brezhnev renewed a pledge that the
Soviet Union will not interfere in
Yugoslavia’s internal affairs, and ac
cused the West of spreading tales to
spoil Yugoslav-Soviet relations.
When Jimmy Carter said before
the U.S. presidential election that
he would not send troops into Yugos
lavia in the event of a Soviet inva
sion, he raised an issue that Yugos
lavs have been trying to play down
for years.
Officials in the Yugoslav govern
ment and Communist party never
state publicly they think the Soviet
Union may send tanks into this Bal
kan nation as in Czechoslovakia in
1968 and in neighboring Hungary in
1956.
M ilitary invasion is one of the pos
sibilities being discussed, but most
analysts agree this is very unlikely.
Tbe Soviet Union could be dis
couraged from taking such an ex
treme step by Yugoslavia’s social and
economic system that has developed
in a way vastly different from that of
all other European Communist
countries.
Wlm
E
Associi
KANSAS CIT"
no Santa Claus at
Americans back
thjere any decora
n or Christmas car
ar the Decla
mce was signe
MARSHAL TITO
Experts credit the Yugoslav sys
tem with having raised the standard
of living to such a level that would
make it exceedingly difficult for the
Soviets to absorb this country’s 22
million inhabitants back into the
centralized “orthodox" state system.
In Yugoslavia there is virtually no
shortage of consumer items.
Another factor discouraging a mil
itary invasion are the highly trained
armed forces, equipped with some
American weapons, and the “Total
People’s Defense.
our sovereignty and indepei
We know that strategical!
United States is interested I j,
lavia remaining free ffomani.
bloc. But I would not say tie i,
have the same interest,’’
An intellectual in Zagrebs®
up his views as follows:
“Yugoslavia will remain
also after Tito. But it is
whether it will continue or,
path or whether it will tiltt
Soviet side.
“There are those who
party would be stronger will
help. Once Tito’s charisma
longer here, who can guarantj
the party can maintain co:
Many Communists believe
Communist government i
better than freedom for thepe
This view is discountedaieBL* __
ingly pessimistic by Milovani m',
who spent nine years in W ^ * W I
breaking with Tito.
“Transition problems*: 1 Assa
solved inside the party in agree | BETHLEIH
with the armed forces th Majauskas and
closely controlled by the part arc working ovt
65-year-old Djilas said in I office. They wi
grade home where he livesot and letters — 2
[Many of toda;
yere then unk
lallmark histoi
but the people (
Bethh
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Tito’s Yugoslavia has pursued a
so-called “nonalignment’’ policy that
has put Belgrade between East and
West.
But a ranking Yugoslav official
says, “We know we need a direct
dialogue,with the United States and
its recognition of the importance of
pension.
“I don’t believe much ini
invasion. It exists potential
not in the foreseeable future,
think it is in the Soviet intei
Djilas says he believes the
tive Presidency will not
yond a transition period.
“They will have to amend
stitution. Yugoslavia needs a
leader as symbol of unity.”
AGGIE CINEMA PRESENTS
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tional competition. Campus tournament dates and times are
Bowling
Week of Dec. 6-10 (2 days @ 6 games a day)
Saturday, Dec. 11 (12 games)
24 total games Entry Fee $3.00 plus games
Men’s and Women’s Divisions
Sign up and pay at the desk in the MSC Bowling and games area.
Table Tennis
Saturday, Dec. 11
Entry Fee $2.00 single; $4.00 doubles Rm. 212 MSC
Singles & doubles events Men’s and Women’s Divisions
For more information call 845-1515 or come by Room 216 MSC
Fussball
Friday, Dec. 10 6:00 p.m.
Doubles only Entry Fee $5.00/Team
MSC Bowling and Games Area
Frisbee
Saturday, Dec. 11 10:00 a.m.
Men’s and Women’s Divisions Entry Fee $2.00
For more information call 845-1515 or come by Room 216 MSC
All TAMU campus games are in accordance with ACUI Regulations and are sponsored by the MSC Recreation Committee
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