Serbia and the United States maintain diplomatic relations established in 1882. From 1918 to 2006, the United States maintained relations with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) (later Serbia and Montenegro), of which Serbia is considered shared (SFRY) or sole (FRY) legal successor.
At the end of the 19th century, the United States sought to take advantage of the Ottoman Empire's retreat from the Balkans by establishing diplomatic relations with the region's newly emerged nation states, among which was Serbia. The two countries were allies during World War I. After the war, Serbia united with Montenegro and territories previously held by Austria-Hungary to create a unified South Slavic state that would come to be known as Yugoslavia. The country had diplomatic relations with the United States up to the start of World War II. During World War II in Yugoslavia, the United States initially supported the Serbian royalist Chetniks over their rivals, the communist Partisans. The Chetniks ultimately lost out to the Partisans and Yugoslavia became a single-party communist state with Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito at its head. In the immediate aftermath of the war, Yugoslavia and the United States had little diplomatic relations. The end of the war also resulted in the mass emigration of refugees from Yugoslavia, many of whom were Serbs that ended up moving to the United States. This helped create the first major Serbian diaspora in the United States. Some of the Serbian refugees who settled in the United States after World War II were anti-communist exiles who attempted to undermine Tito during the Cold War, using the United States as a venue for their anti-communist aims.
During the breakup of Yugoslavia, the United States engaged in both combative and economic conflict, particularly with Serbia, known at the time as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (one of socialist Yugoslavia's successor states). The United States imposed sanctions and spearheaded a NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999. During this period, another wave of Serbian emigration ensued, and many Serbian refugees moved to the United States. In the 2000s, diplomatic relations between the United States and Yugoslavia were restored, but were changed when Montenegro seceded in 2006, after which Serbia was the successor state to continue relations previously held by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move which the US recognized.
History Early Serbian immigration to the United States
The first Serbian settlers to the United States came to Louisiana in the 1830s, largely from the Bay of Kotor and the Dalmatian coast. Further settlers were attracted by the California gold rush of 1848. One of the first Serb immigrants was the settler George Fisher, who fought in the Texan Revolution and was appointed a judge, having previously served in the Serbian revolutionary forces during the First Serbian Uprising. Towards the latter part of the 19th century, Serbs sought opportunities in the northeast, midwest and far west, which became the centers of immigration by the 1940s.
Relations between the Kingdom of Serbia and the United States Diplomatic relations between the then-Kingdom of Serbia and the United States were established in the 19th century. In 1879, the Serbian Consulate-General in New York was opened. On February 3, 1882, the Serbian Parliament adopted a contract and convention of diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Serbia and the United States, given by King Milan Obrenović. The United States Senate adopted both documents on July 5, 1882 without debate or amendments. On November 10, 1882, Eugene Schuyler became the first United States ambassador in Serbia.
In 1894, a visit of a group of 40 US tourists to Belgrade during their European tour attracted significant public attention in Serbian capital. The guests were welcomed by the US consul and numerous citizens after which they visited major attractions and spent an evening in a garden with music.
Relations between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the United States US role in defining borders of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes After the participation of the United States in World War I, US president Woodrow Wilson issued his Fourteen Points as a list of prioritized negotiations to end the war. Wilson's tenth point asserted that the peoples living in Austria Hungary should independently decide their fates after the war, directly contradicting the British government's post-war vision of a surviving Austria-Hungary. Wilson's eleventh point more specifically involved Serbia, explicitly stating that Serbia be guaranteed open access to the Adriatic Sea. During the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles, the United States were represented by a delegation which was heavily involved in defining the borders for the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. During the process of defining new borders, The Kingdom of Serbia selected Jovan Cvijić to show maps to the American delegation in an effort to persuade them to endorse the acquisition of Baranya, east Banat, and other regions previously ruled by Austria Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. Likewise, the American delegation also faced the lobby of Serbia's neighboring countries, and for the most part endorsed the allocation of Baranya to Hungary and most of Banat to Romania, in contrast to Cvijić's proposals.
Cultural exchange
Serbian students began studying in the US after World War I. The International Serbian Educational Committee was founded by professor Rosalie Slaughter Morton in 1919, and it was soon made official by the Ministry of Education. Morton was the first woman professor of gynecology in New York and she sought to "pay her respect, gratitude and admiration" for Serbia's role in the war. Total of 61 students (mostly from modern-day Serbia) were enrolled in the first generation. Various American colleges were made available for free studying to Serb students as a sign of good will and partnership. Such actions were only one aspect of generally good relations between the two nations on all fields at the time.
American films made up over 50 percent of foreign showings in Yugoslav cinemas in the 1930s, with Charlie Chaplin being a favourite of the Belgrade public. During the same period, Jazz music became popular and several American musicians played in Belgrade, such as Arthur Rubinstein.
US support of Serbian monarchists during World War II During the World War II in Yugoslavia, the United States initially supported the royal government of Yugoslavia. When the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia in the spring of 1941, the United States provided large amounts of support to the Chetniks in the first years of the war. This support took place in the form of extensive clandestine relations between the Office of Strategic Services and Chetniks with William Donovan's administration. Such cooperation was highlighted by complex operations such as Operation Halyard, in which several hundred American pilots were rescued by Chetniks.
However, OSS support for the Chetniks was compromised by the British government's MI6 policy of favoring the Yugoslav Partisans instead of the Chetniks. In 1943, the US government's support for the Chetniks over the Yugoslav Partisans was such that president Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed with Winston Churchill in a private conversation that he imagined that Yugoslavia's boundaries would be completely redrawn into three separate states, with Peter II being the monarch of an independent Serbian kingdom at the end of the war. The USAF and the RAF began bombing Belgrade in April 1944 when they came to the conclusion that the Nazi occupation could not be removed by Serbian resistance alone.
The United States intelligence circles gradually conceded its influence on Yugoslav guerrilla operations to the British. At the end of the war, President Harry S. Truman dedicated a Legion of Merit to Chetnik leader Draža Mihailović, but the award wasn't revealed publicly until 2005.
Cold War relations After the end of World War II, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia (FNRJ) was formed. One of the first diplomatic contacts made with the new communist government was the US Department of State's request for the US Army to testify at the Mihailović trial.U.S. Defends Mihailovic in Note to Yugoslavs, The Milwaukee Sentinel - April 3, 1946. However, the request was shunned and early relations between the United States and the government of Josip Broz Tito became strained, as American diplomats were furious over Mihailović's execution in 1946.Walter R. Roberts, Tito, Mihailović and the Allies 1941-1945, Rutgers University Press, page 307Martin, David. Patriot or Traitor: The Case of General Mihailović: Proceedings and Report of the Commission of Inquiry of the Committee for a Fair Trial for Draja Mihailović. Hoover Archival Documentaries. Hoover Institution Publication, volume 191. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, 1978. Relations degraded even further a month later, when two USAF C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft were shot down over Yugoslavia in the space of two weeks. More USAF aircraft were shot down over Yugoslavia up to 1948. As a result, U.S. senator Thomas Dodd staunchly opposed American financial aid to Tito's government, even saying that "Tito had bloodied hands." In one of Josip Broz Tito's early visits to the United States, protesters in San Pedro drowned an effigy of him. Following the Second World War into 1961, the United States operated a Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) and many Yugoslavian officers received American training. Along with receiving many American weapons, Yugoslavia received US$600 million in military aid.
The communist governments in Europe deferred to Stalin and rejected Marshall Plan aid from the United States in 1947. At first, Tito went along and rejected the Marshall plan. However, in 1948 Tito broke decisively with Stalin on other issues, making Yugoslavia an independent communist state. Yugoslavia then requested American aid. American leaders were internally divided, but finally agreed and began sending money on a small scale in 1949, and on a much larger scale 1950–53. The American aid was not part of the Marshall Plan.
Yugoslavia began opening more diplomatic dialogue to western nations after the Tito–Stalin split, which assured that Yugoslavia was not to become a member of the Warsaw Pact. Pan American World Airways launched direct flights from New York to Belgrade in 1963. On 1 January 1967, Yugoslavia was the first communist state to open its borders to all foreign visitors and abolish visa requirements. The regular commercial air travel between the United States and Yugoslavia then saw the launching of JAT Yugoslav Airlines flights to the United States, effectively competing with Pan Am. Trade opportunities reopened between the United States and Yugoslavia, and American businesses began exporting to Yugoslavia. Likewise, by the 1980s Yugoslavia was even exporting many of its manufactured automobiles from Zastava Automobili's assembly line in Kragujevac to the United States. U.S. president Jimmy Carter discussed issues regarding Palestine and Egypt with Tito and referred to him as a "great world leader". Subsequently, the Reagan administration presented their policies towards Yugoslavia in a Secret Sensitive 1984 National Security Decision Directive NSDD 133. "U.S. Policy towards Yugoslavia." A censored version declassified in 1990 elaborated on NSDD 54 on Eastern Europe, issued in 1982. The latter advocated "efforts to expand U.S. economic relations with Yugoslavia in ways which will benefit both countries" serving as "a useful reminder to countries in Eastern Europe of the advantages of independence from Moscow".