The words were those of Lieut. General Dwight Eisenhower. But they were not released by Eisenhower’s G.H.Q. in North Africa. They were not released by the U.S. War Department. They were released in London by the Yugoslav Government in Exile. Eleven days after New Year’s, the Yugoslavs announced that Eisenhower had sent a New Year’s greeting to General Draja Mihailovich:
“Your immortal warriors, united on their mother soil and determined to drive out the invaders in a noble spirit of sacrifice, serve the common cause of the United Nations.”
General Eisenhower’s words accorded with the view that most Americans held of General Mihailovich. But the message also placed General Eisenhower squarely on the painful, baffling Yugoslav political scene—a scene where General Mihailovich’s Serb Nationalists are still at odds with Partisan Serbs, Croats, Slovenes (TIME, Dec. 14, Jan. 11). It was by no means certain that the U.S. Government knew enough about the complexities of the scene to justify a clean-cut commitment.
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