Does anyone understand German interests here? I thought they recognized Croatia very quickly, thereby legitimating its secession and accelerating the breakup of Yugoslavia. This excited Serb memories of the Ustashe, etc. Have I been listening to too much Communist propaganda?
GN:
1) The Danube question, on which I've posted. 2) Regarding Croatia, a big part of the earlier issue was Croatia's willingness to pay off several billion in debt that, I think the Serbian dominated Yugoslavia was fudging on. But of course Croatia's willingness is partly due to its historical role in MittelEuropa which, to understand, you need to go back to Austro-Hungarian empire, not Hitler. Remember a lot of anti-Brit nationalists before WWII were pro Germany, not necessarily because they were Nazis, but because "Nationalism" meant a lot to people run by the UK. I think the Irish had a pro-German gig going in both world wars but I don't know enough about it. In any case the Irish weren't out building concentration camps. But 3) The Croats were and 4) I seem to recall reading that the first showers-cum-gas were built in WWI and used in the Balkans. But I forget who was gassing whom.
-- Gregory P. Nowell Associate Professor Department of Political Science, Milne 100 State University of New York 135 Western Ave. Albany, New York 12222
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