Word: nato
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...nearly three weeks the Serbs avoided testing the nato ultimatum, but meanwhile several developments had altered the situation in the war zone. First, in a stunning five-day blitz, the Croatian army retook Krajina, a breakaway region that for three years had been controlled by rebel Serbs. This offensive dramatically illustrated a new balance of power. "For the first time since 1991 somebody else other than Bosnian Serbs was gaining territory," said a senior State Department official. Second, the U.N. peacekeepers were redeployed to less vulnerable positions. For years the French and the British had objected...
...Tuesday morning, consensus for a retaliatory attack had formed among the nato allies. But U.S. officials knew they faced a major difficulty. What about Holbrooke and his diplomatic team, which was getting ready to lobby Milosevic? If NATO launched air strikes, would Milosevic, the Serb strongman, react with anger and dismiss Holbrooke's overture? After conferring on the phone, Talbott and Christopher decided that the air campaign could cripple the diplomatic initiative, but that Washington had no choice. "Diplomacy was dead without the force," said a State Department official. By 7 p.m. Washington time, the first warplanes were launched...
...Karadzic's case, the decision reflected his growing political weakness; in Mladic's, it was simply a reaffirmation of his close ties to Milosevic. What is interesting about this breakthrough, if indeed that is what it turns out to be, is that it was not triggered by NATO's air strikes. While last week's bombs no doubt concentrated minds in Pale, Milosevic had apparently secured Bosnian Serb cooperation before the planes ever took...
...also pledged that if a peace accord is signed, the U.S. will send 25,000 troops to Bosnia to help enforce it. No doubt that is a safer mission than covering a U.N. retreat. Still, at his office in Naples, U.S. Admiral Leighton Smith, who is in charge of nato's Southern Command, has two documents, each of which is two inches thick and marked "nato Confidential." One outlines the American plans for the U.N. withdrawal; the other is the U.S. plan for enforcing the peace agreement. They are virtually the same...
...helpless. The President was outraged when he first learned about the carnage in the Sarajevo market last Monday. On the phone from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he was vacationing, he told his National Security Adviser, Anthony Lake, that if, as expected, the Bosnian Serbs were found to be responsible, nato would have to retaliate. By shelling Sarajevo, he said, the Serbs were daring the Western alliance--and specifically the U.S.-to live up to its recent promise to answer such attacks with substantial air strikes. "This absolutely requires a response," Clinton declared...