November 14

This Day in History

Also on This Day

Lead Story
Moby-Dick published, 1851
American Revolution
Benjamin Franklin takes sides, 1776
Automotive
Last day for Texas' celebrated drive-in Pig Stands, 2006
Civil War
Lincoln approves Burnside's plan to capture Richmond, 1862
Cold War
United States gives military and economic aid to communist Yugoslavia, 1951
Crime
Ivan Boesky confesses to illegal stock trading activity, 1986
Disaster
Volcano erupts in Colombia and buries nearby towns, 1985
General Interest
Apollo 12 lifts off, 1969
Walesa released from jail, 1982
Hollywood
Cary Grant stars in Hitchcock’s Suspicion, 1941
Literary
Moby-Dick is published, 1851
Music
American classical composer Aaron Copland is born in Brooklyn, New York, 1900
Old West
Franklin Leslie kills Billy "The Kid" Claiborne, 1882
Presidential
Kennedy publishes article on television and American politics, 1959
Sports
Plane crash devastates Marshall University, 1970
Vietnam War
Major battle erupts in the Ia Drang Valley, 1965
Marine general killed in Vietnam, 1967
Nixon promises Thieu that U.S. will continue to support South Vietnam, 1972
World War I
Ottoman Empire declares a holy war, 1914
World War II
Germans bomb Coventry, 1940

Cold War

Nov 14, 1951:

United States gives military and economic aid to communist Yugoslavia

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In a surprising turn of events, President Harry Truman asks Congress for U.S. military and economic aid for the communist nation of Yugoslavia. The action was part of the U.S. policy to drive a deeper wedge between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.

Yugoslavia ended World War II with the communist forces of Josip Broz Tito in control. The United States supported him during the war when his group battled against the Nazi occupation. In the postwar period, as Cold War hostilities set in, U.S. policy toward Yugoslavia hardened. Tito was viewed as simply another tool of Soviet expansion into eastern and southern Europe. In 1948, however, Tito openly broke with Stalin, though he continued to proclaim his allegiance to the communist ideology. Henceforth, he declared, Yugoslavia would determine and direct its own domestic and foreign policies without interference from the Soviet Union.

U.S. officials quickly saw a propaganda opportunity in the fallout between the former communist allies. Although Tito was a communist, he was at least an independent communist who might prove a useful ally in Europe. To curry favor with Tito, the United States supported Yugoslavia's efforts in 1949 to gain a seat on the prestigious Security Council at the United Nations. In 1951, President Truman asked Congress to provide economic and military assistance to Yugoslavia. This aid was granted.

Yugoslavia proved to be a Cold War wild card, however. Tito gave tacit support to the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, but harshly criticized the Russian intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968. While the United States admired Tito for his independent stance, he could sometimes be a bit too independent. During the 1950s and 1960s he encouraged and supported the nonalignment movement among Third World nations, a policy that concerned American officials who were intent on forcing those nations to choose sides in the East-West struggle. Relations between the United States and Yugoslavia warmed considerably after Tito's denunciation of the Czech intervention, but cooled again when he sided with the Soviets during the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1973. Tito died in 1980.

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This Week in History, Nov 14 - Nov 20

Nov 14, 1951
United States gives military and economic aid to communist Yugoslavia
Nov 15, 1957
Nikita Khrushchev challenges United States to a missile "shooting match"
Nov 16, 1945
German scientists brought to United States to work on rocket technology
Nov 17, 1969
SALT I negotiations begin
Nov 18, 1987
Congress issues final report on Iran-Contra scandal
Nov 19, 1985
Reagan and Gorbachev hold their first summit meeting
Nov 20, 1948
American consul in China held "hostage" by communists

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