ZAGREB: Franjo Tudjman’s death, like his life, was a bizarre parody of Marshal Tito. Comparisons between Tudjman and Tito, however, are undermined by anachronism. In Tito’s day it was still possible to have strongmen in gleaming white uniforms command European states, albeit in the Balkans. It was possible to establish authority through collectivist myths, to assert your separate road against global trends, to molest neighbors in the teeth of international censure. No longer. Retrograde regional satraps are outdated in a uniting Europe. And, unlike in Tito's time, whenever the West played Tudjman as a proxy for its interests the results were very mixed.
ZAGREB: Franjo Tudjman’s death, like his life, was a bizarre parody of Marshal Tito. Comparisons between Tudjman and Tito, however, are undermined by anachronism. In Tito’s day it was still possible to have strongmen in gleaming white uniforms command European states, albeit in the Balkans. It was possible to establish authority through collectivist myths, to assert your separate road against global trends, to molest neighbors in the teeth of international censure. No longer. Retrograde regional satraps are outdated in a uniting Europe. And, unlike in Tito's time, whenever the West played Tudjman as a proxy for its interests the results were very mixed.