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Pursuing a policy of social revolution, national liberation, and
non-alignment, Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito became involved in
the Middle East in the mid-1950s. Combined with some initial
interest in economic and military assistance, this involvement
found a positive reception among several Arab states, foremost
Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser. Close personal ties between Tito
and Nasser significantly contributed to the deployment of a
contingent from the Yugoslav Popular Army (JNA) within the United
Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in Egypt, following the Suez War of
1956. Established in a hurry and deployed to Egypt in late November
1956, the JNA's part of the UNEF consisted of a reinforced
reconnaissance battalion. The unit was manned by conscript soldiers
and equipped with vehicles provided by the USA within the frame of
the Mutual Defence Assistance Program (MDAP). The story of the
unit's difficult task of entering the Sinai Peninsula right on the
heels of withdrawing Israeli forces is the centrepiece of this
book. While warmly welcomed by the local inhabitants, through late
1956 and all of 1957, the JNA contingent had the difficult task of
reaching the demarcation lines, establishing observation posts, and
making sure the cease-fire would be respected by all of the
belligerents. For a force that understood itself to have a
national-liberation and revolutionary role, rather than being an
expeditionary military, the Yugoslav Popular Army thus went through
a particularly unusual experience. The mission of the JNA's
contingent with the UNEF on the Sinai came to a sudden end during
the crisis leading to the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War: squeezed
between the advancing Israeli forces, it had to be quickly
evacuated, leaving all its heavy equipment and vehicles behind.
Prepared with help of the original documentation from a host of
archival sources of the former JNA, the book Yugoslav UNEF
Contingent focuses foremost on the deployment immediately after the
Suez Crisis of 1956. Providing detailed coverage of the much
underreported closing chapter of that conflict, it is illustrated
by more than 150 original photographs, most of which have never
been published before.
The city of Trieste stands as a symbol of the Italian-Yugoslav
border dispute in the first decade after the Second World War. The
problem included a much larger territory which covers the wider
area of Trieste: ranging from the Julian Alps in the north to the
base of the Istrian peninsula in the south; in the area where the
Italians meet the South Slavs. Moreover, after the Second World War
it was an area of confrontation for two ideologies: western
democracy and communism. It was the place where the Iron Curtain
lay between the two worlds for many decades of the Cold War. Often
discussed from the socio-economic point of view, military aspects
of the Trieste Crisis remain remarkably under-reported - and not
only in the English language. One of the primary reasons is the
relative unavailability of relevant Italian and Yugoslav
documentation, but also the general focus on political and ethnic
issues instead. The Trieste Crisis focusses on military-related
affairs in this part of the world from the 'race to Trieste' of May
1945 until the creation of the Free Territory of Trieste and the
culmination of tensions between Italy and former Yugoslavia, in
October 1953. By the later date, the crisis had reached a point
where it resulted in the largest deployment of military forces from
both countries. Correspondingly, this work provides a detailed
account of the Allied, Italian and Yugoslav military presence in
the area before, and their build-up during this near-war. Paying
special attention to the description of the troops involved, their
armament and equipment, the heavy weaponry deployed, and aerial and
naval forces, The Trieste Crisis is illustrated by more than 150
photographs - most of them never published before - colour profiles
and maps, and thus closing a gap in the history of the early Cold
War in Europe of the mid-20th Century.
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