EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, ]r.rnEDITORIAL ASSISTANTrnMichael WashburnrnART DIREGTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnHarold O.J. Brown, Katherine Dalton,rnSamuel Francis, George Carrett,rnE. Christian Kopff. Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnBill Kauffman, Jacob Neusner,rnJohn Shelton Reed, Momcilo SelicrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnAllan C. CarlsonrnPUBLICAITON DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnPRODUCTION SECRETARYrnAnita CandyrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnRochelle FrankrnA publication of The Rockford Institute,rnEditorial and Advertising Offices:rn934 North Main Street. Rockford. IL 61103.rnEditonal Phone: (815)064-5054.rnAdvertising Phone: (SIS) 964-5811.rnSubscription Department: P.O. Box 800,rnMount Morns, IL 61054. Call 1-800-877-5459.rnEor information on adertising in Chronicles.rnplease call Rochelle Erank at (815) 964-5811.rnL^S.A. Newsstand Distribution bv Eastern NewsrnDistributors, Inc., 1130 Cleveland Road,rnSandusky, OH 44870.rnCopright © 1995 h I’he Rockford Institute.rnAll rights reserved.rnChronicles (ISSN 0887-5731) is publishedrnmonthl) for S39.00 per ear by The RockfordrnInstitute. 934 North Main Street, Rockford.rnIL 61103-7061. Second-class postage paidrnat Rockford, IL and additicmal mailing offices.rnPOSTMASTER: Send address changes tornChronicles, P.O. Box 800, Mount Morris.rnIL 61054.rnThe ‘icvs expressed in Chronicles are thernauthors’ alone and do not neccssarilv reflectrnthe icws of The Rockford Institute or of itsrndirectors. Unsolicited manuscripts cannot bernreturned unless accompanied by a self-addre.s.sedrnstamped envelope.rnChroniclesrnVol. 19, No, inOctobcrlWSrnTrinted in tlio 1 liiikd States of .ineric.irnPOLEMICS & EXCHANGESrnOn SerbiarnSitting comfortably in my suburbanrnapartment, far from the trenches andrnshellfirc where Momcilo Sclic is witnessingrnthe desperate combat betweenrnSerbs, Croats, and Muslims, I don’trnknow whether I can claim greater objectivityrnor simply greater ignorance. I amrncertainly grateful for Mr. Selic’s glimpsern(“Letter From Bosnia,” April) into thernlives of ordinary Serbs, hard hit by thernblockade and fearing massacre from enemyrnmilitias. It is a talc that can doubtlessrnbe told by participants on all sides. Inrnany ease, it reminds us that we arc ultimatelyrndealing not just with politicalrnagendas or military objectives but humanrnbeings.rnUnfortunately, Mr. Selic speaks disdainfullyrnof “Croatland” and impliesrnthat all Croat soldiers are the descendantsrnof the infamous Ustase. I wonderrnwhy he does not say anything like thisrnabout the Slovenes. This. I imagine, isrnbecause, as far as I know, there are no sizablernSerb enclaves in Slovenia, and sornthe northernmost former Yugoslavrnrepublic could make a clean break. Notrnso in the case of Croatia. I may seemrngullible for sympathizing with the Croatrndesire for independence. At the samerntime, my support for Croatia has beenrntempered by a realization that this conflict,rnlike so many in European history,rnbelies simplistic distinctions betweenrn”good” and “bad,”rnMr. Selic admits that his fellow Serbsrnhave no scruples about committing thernsame sort of atrocities attributed to thernenemy. Of course, we have no way ofrnknowing who started the latest round ofrnbrutal massacres. Serbs say the}’ are retaliatingrnfor Croat atrocities. The Croatsrnare getting revenge for the slaughter ofrntens of thousands of their countrymenrnby the Chetniks in Worid War II,’ Thernlatter, in turn, sought retribution for thernexcesses committed b the Ustase. It’s arnnever-ending cycle of viciousness whichrnMr. Selic seems to accept with a certainrnfatalistic resignation.rnWhile innocent Serbs are undeniablyrnsuffering a great deal from the currentrnNATO-imposed blockade, one recallsrnthat just four years ago, it was the Serbrnfighters who had the big guns, andrnplanes, on their side. They were busv besiegingrnand starving out the inhabitantsrnof Zadar and V’ukovar.rnThankfully, there is one figure to lookrnto as standing above the ancient hatredsrn—the famous Archbishop Stepinac.rnAn ardent Croat patriot, Stepinac was atrnfirst a supporter of Anton Pavelic, leaderrnof the Ustase. Yet he quickly became onernof Pavelic’s greatest opponents and condemnedrnexcesses committed bv bothrnsides. He denounced the mass executionsrnand forced “conversions” by thernCroat fascists. He saw that such actionsrnwere not only immoral and inhuman,rnbut were dri’ing people into the arms ofrnTito’s communists.rnPavelic’s government tried to removernStepinac, but the Vatican would havernnone of it. Stepmac likewise irked Nazirnofficials by resisting their attempts tornround up Croatia’s Jewish community.rnAs a result of his “meddling,” 75,000rnJews were spared the one-way trip to therncamps in Poland (a fact frequently overlookedrnby critics of Catholic Croatia).rnThis venerable and aged cleric, laterrnimprisoned bv Tito, was perhaps uniquernamong wartime Balkan leaders in that herntook the tenets of his religion seriously.rnHe was a nationalist, but he was also, firstrnand foremost, a Christian.rnI may be naive in thinking that my assessmentrnwould remain the same if Irnwere in Mr. Selic’s shoes, “^et his articlernseems to offer no solution that risesrnabove the interminable slaughter. I preferrnthe example of Stepinac.rn—Matthew M. AngerrnAlexandria, VArnMr. Selic Replies:rnMr. Anger’s letter, yvcll-intcntioned as itrnmight be, does offer some insights intornthe Yugoslav i^roblems (and some otherrnproblems as well) that stem less from arnpresentation of facts than from inference.rnAs for the facts, I might remindrnMr. Anger that Croatian CardinalrnStepinac did not save 75,000 Croatian,rnBosnian, Herzegovinian, and VoivodinarnJews from being sent to “camps inrnPoland,” because most of them werernsent to the Croatian death camp, Jascnovacrn(not far from Zagreb) instead.rnThere, more than 30,000 of them werernmurdered (often by being butcheredrnor clubbed to death). In fact, existingrn4/CHRONICLESrnrnrn