Beacons in the Night: With the OSS and Tito's Partisans in Wartime Yugoslavia
An absorbing account of wartime intelligence work as it really was: tough, dangerous, and carried out with mixed success.\ \ With an eye for vivid detail, Lindsay relates the crossing of the German frontier at night, and traces the evolution of Yugoslavia's Partisan leadership from underground Communist organizers to national political leaders. Photos.\
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"This is a 3-in-1 bargain: a gripping tale of adventure; a solid contribution to the history of World War II; and an illuminating introduction to the contemporary tragedy of Yugoslavia." --Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Lindsay's memoirs are largely based on newly declassified materials. 25 illustrations. Publishers Weekly Lindsay's memoir of his experiences as an American OSS officer with Tito's Partisans stands as a classic work of Resistance literature, but the book's overriding importance lies in its clarification of the ethnic/religious tensions that led to the present Balkan tragedy. Lindsay describes the two competing WW II resistance movements in Yugoslavia, both dedicated to engaging German forces needed elsewhere but with different postwar goals. Tito planned to turn the country into a Moscow-directed communist state; his rival, Chetnik leader Draza Mikhailovic, was determined to restore the monarchy and to continue the prewar dominance by the Serbs. On this basis, a civil war raged throughout the land even as the rivals fought against the German occupation. ``The ethnic hatred that fueled the communal violence,'' writes the author, ``seemed deeply embedded in the souls of the inhabitants.'' The book combines a rousing personal adventure story with new information on the Partisan contribution to the Allied war effort, and at the same time provides a useful lesson in Balkan history that is directly pertinent to the current bloodshed. Lindsay, retired chairman of the Itek Corporation, is an Associate of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard. Photos. (Sept.)
1To Slovenia by Parachute12Preparing for the Mission143First Days with the Partisans304Crossing the Border475Inside the Third Reich586Blowing Up Germany's Railroads707Night Marches and Hidden Hospitals888The Partisans Organize a Shadow Government1079Radios, Codes, and Codebreakers11810Liberation of a Mountain Valley13111The Lure of Austria14912Failure in Austria16613Revolution Comes into the Open17814The German Winter Offensive Begins20015Ethnic and Ideological Wars in Croatia21916Tito's Government Takes Control in Belgrade24517The Defeat of the Chetniks26518Communist Rule Becomes Absolute27819The Cold War Begins in Trieste29120In the Wake of the Hot War31321How It All Turned Out329Appendix: Political Boundaries and Ethnic Distribution in Postwar Yugoslavia355Notes357Suggestions for Further Reading371Acknowledgments375Index377
\ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ Lindsay's memoir of his experiences as an American OSS officer with Tito's Partisans stands as a classic work of Resistance literature, but the book's overriding importance lies in its clarification of the ethnic/religious tensions that led to the present Balkan tragedy. Lindsay describes the two competing WW II resistance movements in Yugoslavia, both dedicated to engaging German forces needed elsewhere but with different postwar goals. Tito planned to turn the country into a Moscow-directed communist state; his rival, Chetnik leader Draza Mikhailovic, was determined to restore the monarchy and to continue the prewar dominance by the Serbs. On this basis, a civil war raged throughout the land even as the rivals fought against the German occupation. ``The ethnic hatred that fueled the communal violence,'' writes the author, ``seemed deeply embedded in the souls of the inhabitants.'' The book combines a rousing personal adventure story with new information on the Partisan contribution to the Allied war effort, and at the same time provides a useful lesson in Balkan history that is directly pertinent to the current bloodshed. Lindsay, retired chairman of the Itek Corporation, is an Associate of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard. Photos. (Sept.)\ \ \ \ \ From the Publisher"This is a marvellous book, a gripping adventure story which is also an important historical memoir of direct relevance to today's Yugoslavia. . . . It is a brilliantly intelligent account of the nature of subversive operations and of the politics and stategy of the Yugoslav campaign. It is also splendidly written, with the freshness of a text penned in the immediate aftermath of the arresting events it describes."—The Daily Telegraph\ \ \
