Some Things Never Change
On May 6, 1944, Germany surrendered unconditionally, signalling the end of World War II in Europe. But, writes Ian Buruma in Year Zero:
“Stalin
was furious that General Eisenhower had presumed to accept the German surrender
for the eastern as well as western fronts. Only the Soviets should have that
privilege, in Berlin. Stalin wanted to postpone V-E Day till May 9.”
Even as the Allies
were arguing, in the general confusion Admiral Doenitz announced the German
surrender on radio. Was the cat out of the bag?
“But
still there was no official announcement from the Allied leaders that the war
with Germany was over.”
On 8th
May, the Russians accepted the surrender of the Germans (again). Churchill
decided to ignore the Russians and not wait for 9th; instead, he
decided to formally announce the victory in England on 8th at 3 p.m.
But wait:
“General
Charles de Gaulle, refusing to be upstaged by Churchill, insisted on making his
announcement to the French at exactly the same time.”
A little less than
half a century later, the same jockeying among leaders at the end of a war
repeated itself after the Yugoslavia war. In Shadowplay, Tim
Marshall pointed out that:
“In
1944, The US stopped at the gates of Paris, and allowed the Free French army to
chase the remaining Germans out. It was a political decision designed to
strengthen General de Gaulle’s position among the French public.”
That was a
different era though, when there was no TV. But:
“In
Kosovo, they (Americans) wanted
prime time.”
So much so that
the Americans told the British army that was nearer Kosovo to stand back. They,
the Americans, would go in first. After all, they headed NATO.
It gets even more
amusing. And dangerous. Remember, the Yugoslavia war happened after the
fall of the USSR, and Russia had been relegated to a minor power, forbidden
from being part of the Yugoslavia war. But even as the Americans took their
time to reach Kosovo, a Russian unit in Bosnia decided to move in first. And so
they took the airport. Suddenly, Russia, a country that had no role in the war,
seemed to have manoeuvred itself into relevance! It left the Americans fuming:
the Russians had stolen their thunder.
This was a very
dangerous point. In theory, the Russians, having secured the airport, could fly
in more troops, and forcibly create a “Russian sector”, a la Germany in
1944. The US chief, General Wesley Clark, asked the British to take back
control of the airport. The British General Mike Jackson refused, since such a
move would inevitably involve firing at the Russians:
“I’m
not going to start bloody World War Three for you!”
(In case you wondered, the Russians pulled out soon from the airport and Kosovo, but for a brief period there, they had thumbed their noses at NATO).
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