NIXON’S RIGHT: E.C.’S DEFERRED RECOGNITION OF CROATIA, SLOVENIA TANTAMOUNT TO ‘GREEN LIGHT’ FOR AGGRESSION

(Washington, D.C.): On the same day as
the European Community announced its
intention to recognize the independence
of Croatia and Slovenia (but only
after a further one-month delay and
subject to certain conditions being
satisfied), former President Richard
Nixon published a powerful indictment of
U.S. and Western policy in the Yugoslav
crisis to date — and a forecast of the
devastating effects the perpetuation of
such a policy will likely have.

President Nixon’s op.ed. published in
the Wall Street Journal,
entitled “How
the West Can Bring Peace to
Yugoslavia,” makes the following
critical strategic argument:

“While communism has
collapsed around the world, the
West has mounted a comically
tepid response to attempts by
Serbian hard-line communists to
dismember or even to destroy the
democratic government of
Croatia….Great stakes are
involved that have the potential
to transform today’s small issue
into tomorrow’s big issue. A
neutral Western position appeases
the aggressors in Serbia and the
Serbian-dominated federal army.
It will give a green light to
aggressors world-wide and send a
discouraging signal to the
world’s struggling democrats,
not only in the former Soviet
Union but even in China.”

Unfortunately, it appears that
the “compromise” painfully
hammered out by the European Community in
Brussels earlier today represents just
such a “green light”
for aggressors. Lest there be
any doubt as to the fact that the EC’s
purpose was not to effect an
early and unanimous recognition of
breakaway Yugoslav republics but to delay
that recognition, consider the U.S. State
Department’s official response: “We
welcome the EC’s decision to postpone
definitive action on recognition which
will allow more time for the efforts of
the UN Secretary General and Lord
Carrington regarding Yugoslavia.”

Whatever
the EC’s intentions, one thing is clear: The
net effect of the announcement
that all Community members will recognize
Croatia and Slovenia (and any other
republic requesting recognition) on 15
January 1992 — provided
conditions concerning respect for
existing borders, minorities and
democratic government are met to the
Western European states’ satisfaction — is
to give the Serbian armed forces another
month to destroy the Croatian republic.
Like Evgenii Primakov’s notorious bid to
stave off the Gulf ground campaign by
three weeks so as to buy Saddam Hussein
time to save his forces in Kuwait, this
idea should be categorically rejected.

In a Decision
Brief released yesterday, the
Center for Security Policy reiterated its
long-standing position that the
United States and all other Western
nations should recognize Croatia and
Slovenia immediately.
It is gratified that President Nixon has
strongly seconded this view in his
editorial (a copy of which is attached)
and that he has lent his universally
recognized stature as an authority on
international affairs to two urgently
needed corollary actions: 1) the
insertion of heavily armed peacekeeping
forces without waiting for a
cease-fire to take hold; and 2) the
lifting of the arms embargo against
Croatia and Slovenia which impinges far
more severely on their ability to defend
themselves than it does on Serbia’s
ability to attack them.