Keeping Tito Afloat: The United States, Yugoslavia, and the Cold War. by Lorraine M. LeesReview by: Walter L. HixsonThe Journal of American History, Vol. 84, No. 4 (Mar., 1998), pp. 1572-1573Published by: Organization of American HistoriansStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2568215 .Accessed: 21/05/2013 10:54

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1572 The Journal of American History March 1998

president of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Hans Booms, and the late Dr. Martin Bros- zat, then director of the Institute for Contem- porary History (Institut fur Zeitgeschichte) in Munich, all signed an agreement called "the German-American Program to Describe and Reproduce OMGUS Records." Since 1945, OMGUS has been the universal designation or acronym for the Office of Military Government of the United States -the central and regional mili- tary authorities of the United States Army that ruled the American zones of occupation in post- war Germany from 1945 until 1949.

The German-American agreement began an unprecedented effort to provide German scholars with the vitally important but missing archival records needed to document the cru- cial first years of postwar German history. After the end of Allied occupation, the voluminous OMGUS records were all returned to the United States and deposited in the National Archives under the signature Record Group 260. To make the records generally available in Germany, the entire OMGUS collection was sifted, organized, cataloged, indexed, and microfilmed, and the film records were deposited in various German archives. The current volume, or OMGUS- Handbuch, first envisioned by the German and American archivists and scholars who began the project two decades ago, serves both as a general narrative history of the years of United States military government and as a reference work and archival guide to the OMGUS records and documents. It is an invaluable source for both German and American students and schol- ars interested in the era, from the standpoint of early United States postwar policy and from the perspective of German domestic experience under American rule, since it is now the only complete, published work incorporating and describing all the OMGUS records. The volume itself is organized in sections that parallel the central and regional structure of the United States military government authority in post- war Germany. The introductory portion of the work details the history and the sources avail- able to study the OMGUS Headquarters in Frank- furt, and the following sections, each organized in identical fashion, outline both the history and the historical sources of the regional American military governing authorities in the German states of Bavaria, Hesse, Wiirttemberg-

Baden, and Bremen and in the American mili- tary command in Berlin between 1945 and 1949.

The value of this German edition of the oMGus-Handbuch for scholars and students alike is further enhanced by an extensive bib- liography of monographic works, articles, and published documents from the period and ac- companying extensive geographic and person- ality indexes. This is both an extremely thor- ough, highly useful reference history of the period and its sources and an outstanding ex- ample of solid achievement in cooperation among German and American scholars and archivists.

Charles W. Sydnor Jr. Central Virginia Educational

Telecommunications Corporation Richmond, Virginia

Keeping Tito Afloatt: The UnitedStates, Yugo- slavia, and the Cold War. By Lorraine M. Lees. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997. xviii, 246 pp. $40.00, ISBN 0-271- 01629-9.)

Yugoslavia, under the leadership of Tito (Josip Broz), played a key role in the history of the Cold War. As Lorraine M. Lees's study makes clear, the Truman and Eisenhower administra- tions sought, with mixed success, to exploit the opportunities that emerged when for the first time a Communist party-dominated re- gime severed its ties with the Soviet motherland.

After leading the Partisan resistance to the Nazis in World War II, Tito proclaimed the Federated People's Republic of Yugoslavia in December 1945. Initially Tito's adherence to Communist ideology and his support of the radical insurgency in postwar Greece rendered him anathema in Washington.

Perceptions changed rapidly, however, when Tito broke with the Soviet leader,Joseph Stalin, in 1948, demonstrating the fallacy of "mono- lithic communism." While the Truman admin- istration had failed to anticipate the cleavage, Washington quickly began to pursue a strategy of "keeping Tito afloat" by launching generous economic and military assistance programs. Yugoslavia would provide the "wedge" that Washington would use to pry the East Euro-

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Book Reviews 1573

pean Communist party regimes free from Moscow's grasp.

Dwight D. Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, stepped up the as- sistance program, tried to lure Tito into mem- bership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organ- ization, and even urged Tito to spearhead the campaign for "liberation" of the "captive peoples" of Eastern Europe. Stalin's death, fol- lowed by the new Soviet leadership's attempt at rapprochement with Tito, undermined their efforts, however.

While Washington doled out millions of dollars in economic and military aid, Tito gladly took the money and ignored the advice that went with it. He refused to abandon his leadership of the nonaligned movement, which the Eisenhower administration perceived as little distinct from the enemy camp.

Nor was Tito, who was, after all, a Com- munist, much interested in championing "lib- eration" in Eastern Europe, as his endorsement of the Soviet overthrow of Imre Nagy in Hun- gary in 1956 rather pointedly revealed. Dulles apparently never got the message. Throughout his tenure as secretary of state, Dulles "persisted in seeing Tito as an agent of liberation despite the latter's constant avowals of devotion to socialism."

Lees notes that Tito benefited most from Yugoslavia's precarious yet profitable geopolit- ical position between the Cold War rivals. As Lees points out, Tito's "resolve to remain both a communist and a neutral proved stronger than either side's attempts to control him." Tito him- self finally pulled the plug on the Western mili- tary assistance programs late in the Eisenhower era, though economic aid continued.

This account is the best single source on United States-Yugoslav relations during the Truman and Eisenhower years. Nonetheless, there is little here that is new. In terms both of conceptualization and of methodology, the book is traditional at best. The work is based largely on presidential and State Department records. Notably absent in the era of "inter- national history" is evidence of research, or even visitation by the author, to the Balkans.

Her conclusions are debatable. Lees vindi- cates Harry S. Truman and Eisenhower for see- ing through ideological blinders and adopting a "geopolitical" approach to Yugoslavia. This,

she judges, was one of the "greatest successes" of the postwar containment policy, despite the evidence that Tito benefited most from the situ- ation even as he steadfastly refused to tilt Washington's way.

Walter L. Hixson University of Akron Akron, Ohio

For Europe or Empire? French Colonial Am- bitions and the European Army Plan. By Jas- mine Aimaq. (Lund: Lund University Press, 1996. 311 pp. ISBN 91-7966-371-0.)

In October 1950, France proposed the creation of an integrated European army, designed to provide Europe with an adequate defense against Soviet attack while blocking creation of a German national army. During the sub- sequent four years, however, the French gov- ernment never sought the parliamentary ratifica- tion of the plan, despite its having been hailed in Washington, Bonn, and other European cap- itals as a clever solution to Europe's defense problem. Why did the French fail to press ahead with their own proposal?

Scholars have speculated that France never supported the European Defense Community (EDC) but sought to use it as a bargaining chip to secure more aid from Washington for its war in Indochina. Jasmine Aimaq, going further along this line than any previous historian, ar- gues that this blackmail diplomacy was explicit and intentional. The EDC, she argues, was devised chiefly to increase French bargaining power. During 1950-1954, France demanded and received increased aid from the United States by using the promise of EDC ratification as an inducement to Washington. This effort failed to produce a successful outcome to the colonial war, however, and after the French de- feat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the French gov- ernment quietly killed off the EDC in retali- ation for insufficient American military support.

This argument oversimplifies a complicated relationship. Certainly, the French discovered that the American commitment to the EDC gave them leverage with Washington. But Aimaq has given very little attention to the policy dy- namics within the French government on the European rearmament question. She assumes

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Article Contentsp. 1572p. 1573

Issue Table of ContentsThe Journal of American History, Vol. 84, No. 4 (Mar., 1998), pp. 1271-1679Volume Information [pp. ]Front Matter [pp. ]Previews [pp. 1278-1279]"The Extention of His Majesties Dominions": The Virginia Backcountry and the Reconfiguration of Imperial Frontiers [pp. 1281-1312]Huguenot Traditions in the Mountains of Kentucky: Daniel Trabue's Memories [pp. 1313-1333]Capitalism and Industrialization in New England, 1815-1845 [pp. 1334-1354]Accidental Ethnography in an Antebellum Southern Newspaper: Snell's Homecoming Festival [pp. 1355-1383]The Politics of Caf Society[pp. 1384-1406]Textbooks and TeachingA Reintroduction [pp. 1407-1408]"Pictures Have Now Become a Necessity": The Use of Images in American History Textbooks [pp. 1409-1424]Slavery in United States Survey Textbooks [pp. 1425-1438]Explorations in Teaching Inspiration: A Seminar for Students Beginning Dissertations [pp. 1439-1446]"Dynamic Syllabi for Dummies": Posting Class Assignments on the World Wide Web [pp. 1447-1453]Mr. Yamamoto and Japanese Americans in New Jersey during World War II [pp. 1454-1456]Material Object as Document: A "Hair-Curling" Classroom Exercise [pp. 1457-1458]

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Letters to the Editor [pp. 1600-1601]Announcements [pp. 1602]Recent Scholarship [pp. 1603-1650]Back Matter [pp. ]