US-Serbian Relations
Post Conflict Republika SRPSKA
Leader Milorad Dodik with
former US Vice President Mike Pence
The Serbian and American people enjoyed great diplomatic relations for over 140 years and fought in the first 2 world wars as allies. In fact, during World War II, General Draza Mihailovic led his forces to rescue over 500 US Airmen. The Halyard Mission was regarded as the largest rescue operation of US Airmen in US history, and it was successful due to the heroic efforts of General Mihajlovic.
General Draza Mihailovic was a Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetnik detachments of the Yugoslav Army (Chetniks), a royalist and nationalist movement and guerrilla force established following the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941. In fact, Mihailovic’s actions were recognized by 3 US Presidents:
- President Truman awarded him the Legion of Merit
- President Nixon wrote about his heroic efforts to save US pilots
- Ronald Reagan stated:
"The ultimate tragedy of Draza Mihailovic cannot erase the memory of his heroic and often lonely struggle against the twin tyrannies that afflicted his people, Nazism and Communism. He knew that totalitarianism, whatever name it might take, is the death of freedom. He thus became a symbol of resistance to all those across the world have had to fight a similar heroic and lonely struggle against totalitarianism…."
General Draza Mihailovic paid the ultimate price for his heroism and was executed by firing squad in 1946 by Yugoslav Communists, and it started an area of political and military neutrality for Serbs in a Yugoslavia dominated by a communist ideology.
The greatest missed opportunity in post World War II Europe was when the West decided to throw their support to communists instead of our great ally General Mihajlovic to lead a post-war free and Democratic Yugoslavia.
Looking back at the past three decades, there were ample missed opportunities for Republika Srpska and the United States to advance their relationship towards Euro Atlantic integration and strengthen military and political relations to the highest possible levels. Independence for Republika Srpska, recognized by the United States, and with firm security guarantees from NATO, would be the culmination of a successful eternal partnership between a free and independent Republika Srpska and the United States.
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