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COUNTRY SUBJECT 25X1A Approved For Release} 2004/02/19 : CIA-RDP83-00415R00680005 ashe "CLASSIFICATION CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY RETORT INFORMATION REPORT co xo. Tugoslevia DATE DISTR. 7 Dec, 1950 Political Trends Within the No. oF Paces “7 25;e paler Aray PLACE ACQUIREQ oF THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE RATIONAL DEFENSE NO. OF ENCLS. (LISTED BELOW) SUPPLEMENT TO REPORT NO. THIS 1S UNEVALUATED INFORMATION TaceRonucTiOn OF Twis FORM 15 PRONIEITED 1. 2. The decision of the Yugoslav Politburo according to which no ge! gould serve in the Yugoslav Army on active duty if he were not of the Commnist Party extends back to 1947. Those who had alr reached that rank and were not Communists were accepted as ci for inscription into the Party but, when after a period of time,| Politburo was unable to convince itself that they could really members of the Party, steps were taken to exclude them from the Thus, in the actual set-up of the Yugoslav Corps of Generals there are no anti-Marxist elements, but’ there is only a certain group which follows en actual deviation from the Orthodox Marxist line. Before analyzing the attitude of the Corps of Generals with respect to the Tito-Cominform conflict, of a major or minor rapprochement to the West, and of the democratization and nationalization of the Army, it is well to know that, above and beyond all these questions, an esprit de corps has been formed in the Yugoslav Army; that is, a spirit of the military caste. The majority of the generals currently in service stems from the lowest social strata and they, in any other kind of combination, could never have a position or living conditions other or different than that which they presently have in the leadership of the Yugoslav Army Upon the occasion of the criticisms which, according to the Communist system, were directed against the political leadership of the Yugoslav Army during May 1950, General Apostolski textually expressed the following opinion: "The organization and the unity of the Army are our principal goal, for thus we forget that the Army must be the tool of some policy and of some ideology; we consider the Army to be an end in itself." The development of the spirit of caste in the Army has, for the Tito regime, had certain positive and negative results. The positive results are those with respect to the technical and organizational strengthening of the Army, whereas the negative results consist of the collective solidarity of the generals, a solidarity which prevents any and every act of persecution directed against a considerable number of the members of the Corps of Generals, It is a well-known fact that, amongst the Yugoslav generals, there is a number consisting of no less than 30 percent who are completely allied with Soviet policies and with the Soviet General Staff, and who are convinced of the totel defeat of the West in the event of a wer, Their "comrades", to Marshal Tito, do not persecute them at all, It is also Approved For Release 2004/02/19 : CIA-RDP83-00415R006800050005-6