Customer Reviews

Yugoslavia: An Avoidable War Pb

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I respect the opinion of the person who wrote the review before me, but I urge you to read the book. I understand why Edo would not like the book. It is much different than anything else you can find in USA. The book shows the other side of the war and clearly states that there were three waring parties there. The book is filled with facts that show the numbers of serbian refugees from Bosnia (40%) which has been hidden to the West. The book gives a good idea of what really happened and all the reasons why the three nations didn't want to live together anymore. In any case, I can say that I feel wiser for have read it. Thank you.

Nora Beloff was one of the greatest experts on Balkan affairs in UK (and Europe). She was editor of "THE GUARDIAN" papers and she was actively writting until her tragic death. Unlike many of her colleagues in Britain (and West in general), she actually knows very well what is she writting about! Her expertise on Balkans is unsurpassed and she has written several books on this matter. She states the facts, destroys propaganda and explains clearly who is who in Balkans and what was West's part in break up of Yugoslavia. If you are interested in Balkans, or you want to know how todays governments and media operate, function and create propaganda- this book is for you

I'm actually reviewing the 3-part videotape series that was made from this book. The videotapes were produced by Film Humanities, dedicated to producing educational/documentary films for TV and libraries. The author of the book is extensively interviewed on the tapes, as are many of her sources. I initially found the film to be a little dry - heavy as it is with these talking heads. But I soon became absorbed in the rather startling, upending argument it presents about the Bosnian/Serbian War.

The book/film's first diverging contention is that the War was triggered by Croatia's and Slovenia's separatist bids. It further contends that Germany's and America's misguided and mendacious backing of these aspirations made war virtually inevitable.

The film then goes on to take the controversial view that the Serbs, under their leader Slobodan Milosevic, were more victims than perpetrators in the ensuing War. The author of this work attributes our false perceptions to the fact that the Serbs didn't practice the skillful PR that the other factions in the War did. They weren't as good at staging events and at massaging casualty statistics. The power structure encouraged the others' spin-doctoring in order to justify our support of the Muslim factions and to keep oil interests on our side.

This view is so contrary to the general picture the media painted - that I at first suspected this book/film must have been financed by some Serbian coalition, and was in fact just the work of apologists for Serbia. However, I again began to change my mind as I listened further.

One of the Balkan experts giving testimony is John Peter Maher, and his presence on the tapes made a difference for me. I recognized him as someone I knew. He had been my linguistics professor in college, and now was appearing as a knowledgeable witness who had served in counter-intelligence in Yugoslavia. As my teacher, I'd found him to be a perceptive, reliable guide through the warring factions of linguistic study. He didn't seem given to unfounded partisanships of any kind in this perennially contentious field. So Maher definitely added credibility to this film's premise that the Serbs were not the instigators of the War, or the perpetrators of its worst atrocities.

I can't say that "Yugoslavia, the Avoidable War" completely convinced me of its case. But it gives me pause. Made in 2001, it was certainly prescient in its criticisms of US tendencies to dismiss diplomacy in favor of the use of immediate military might.

And this work once again brought into serious question the reliability of our news coverage. A good follow-up movie to obtain on this issue would be "Live From Baghdad" starring Michael Keaton. This movie was praised by many as a depiction of the heroic coverage provided by CNN field reporters during the Desert Storm War. However, I saw the movie as a rather sad commentary on how often foreign correspondents operate on an adrenaline rush, going after news bites and "scoops" that have little substance and that leave the viewing public with skewed versions of what really happened. It seems this sort of aggressive push/shove culture of headline grabbing might have left the public similarly misinformed about what was really going on in the Bosnian/Serbian War.

This book is a real gem. It is factual scholary work of one of the greatest experts on Balkan affairs. However, young Bosnian muslims and Croats will definately not like it...You can see this in the negative reviews that follow this one. Brainwashed as they are, they try to discredit this book and the author by repeting false and malicius propaganda- for example that Serbs wanted "to create Greater Serbia" throughout last 6-7 decades and that "they are still trying to do so". It doesnt take a genious to know that Yugoslavia was rulled by Tito, an CROATIAN DICTATOR, for all these decades and if anything, he was very Anti-Serb. He broke Serbia into pieces, by creating new nation Macedonia( previously South Serbian disrict called "Chokalija") and by forming two authonomic regions within Serbia itself: Kosovo and Vojvodina. Furthermore, in 1974 Tito made Muslims a nation in Bosnia- yes you read it well- a NATION. Not religious group aS ANYWHERE in the world, but NAtion. With this he even more reduced number of Serbs, because todays Bosnian muslims, who are attacking this book here, were, until 1974, declairing themselves as "Serbs" of Islamic religion.So from 1974 until break up of Yugoslavia they were just Muslims. Now they will say of course that they are Bosnians....These are historical facts that can be easily checked: Turkey rulled Balkans for over 500 years and those Serbs and Croats who changed their religion and took Islam during this time, are todays Bosnian Muslims. So it remains a mistery how did Serbs tried to create a "Great Serbia" under rule of Croatian Dictator who hated them and who fought against them in the WWI ( Tito was an Austrian soldier)....Even Milosevic was not a nationalist, but a communist who stood for "brotherhood and Unity" and who wanted to preserve Yugoslavia, as opossed to radical Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Iztebegovic and even more radical nationalist in Croatia - Franjo Tudjman.Until he was in power Serrbia and Montenegro were still called "Yugoslavia" and his Serbia remained the most MULTI-ETHNIC state in Balkans (40% od citizens of Serbia are not Serbs). All this is well documented in this great book. Ms Beloff is not pro-Serbian but rather objective and after reading this book you will know why there are so many poor attempts to dicredit her and this book. This is pricesly why this book is hard to buy and find, as it exposes official Western propaganda and malicious policies of different powers in Balkans.

Just another worthless propaganda book. It's overwhelmingly pro-serbian, portrays the serbs as almost the only victims of war in the former yugoslavia. Blames everybody except the serbs for starting the war. Ignores the fact that for centuries the serbs tried to enslave the region through force and establish a greater serbia, which is still their goal.

...reading this book. Despite her claims of being a "highly experienced specialist on international affairs" and something of an authority on Yugoslavia and its political scene, the late Nora Beloff wrote a book that is just another contribution to the vast body of propaganda on the Yugoslav conflict published over the last ten years. One would at least expect some new insights or arguments from this self-proclaimed specialist, but she provides no substantial information nor background, nor does she give readers even a perfunctory understanding of the Yugoslav wars and their terrible consequences. Beloff seems to go out of her way to exonerate Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic of responsibility for the crimes committed by his regime and on behalf of the aggressive Serbian nationalism he stirred up during the late 1980s. The grosteque Radovan Karadzic and the Bosnian Serb Army are similarly whitewashed. On the other hand, the Bosnian Muslims and especially the Croats (who become interchangeable with the word "Ustasha" in the course of the book) are to blame for almost everything. Much of the propaganda published by the Yugoslav Information Ministry is more convincing that Beloff's mindless diatribes in this book. In his foreward to the book, Richard Body lambasts Western commentators for allegedly adhering to the formula "Bosnia and Croatia, good; Serbia, bad." All this little pamphlet does is turn the formula around: "Serbia, good; Bosnia and Croatia, bad." Such moronic simplicity may make good sense for narrow-minded propaganda campaigns, but it does nothing more in reality than foment further misunderstanding and prejudices.