The forty days of Trieste: Yugoslav and Anglo-American relations during the Trieste crisis

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-98)Yugoslav liberation of the city created an array of complex issues for the western Allies and pitched members of the grand alliance against each other in the ftrst and rather unique conflict of the post-war period. The Trieste Crisis that resulted from the British intention to play the role of colonial power and exercise their traditional behavior over what they considered a lesser nation. Coupled with the American phobia of Bolshevism, met head-to-head with a stubborn Yugoslav nationalism hidden under the mask of Communism that was supported by its ideological patron in Moscow. Besides obvious divisions that existed between the members of an Allied cause, one particular difference played a very significant role. The issue of race or ethnic identity, created by unconditional British and American support for Italians, was based on a policy that stated that the defense of Italian claims is the defense of the western world from the "uncivilized" and alien culture of the Soviet and Yugoslav Slavs. The aforementioned situation led Trieste into a forty day tense military and diplomatic crisis that almost exploded into the full scale war between wartime "allies.