President Franjo Tudjman's Horrors of War launched at Croatian Embassy

 The first English edition of Croatian President Dr. Franjo Tudjman's book Horrors of War: Historical Reality and Philosophy was launched at the Embassy of Croatia in Washington, DC on November 21, 1996. This event, covered by the major Croatian and American news media, attracted wide public attention. President Tudjman wrote the book as a democratic dissident in the former Yugoslavia. Grounded on his personal experience during the anti-fascist resistance and the struggle for an independent, democratic Croatia, President Tudjman in the book examines the role of violence in history, focusing on the horrors of the twentieth century. As part of this historical review, he critiques the Yugoslav creation of a "black legend", which sought to affix responsibility for the crimes of the World War II Ustasha regime on the entire Croatian people. At its core, the book defends independent scholarship and the importance of objective, factual history as opposed to the ideological history that socialist systems embraced under Communism.

 Horrors of War first appeared in 1989 as "Bespuca povijesne zbiljnosti: Rasprava o povijesti i filozofiji zlosilja" in the Croatian language. This is the seventh edition of the book. This translation will provide the English speaking world an opportunity to read for the first time President Tudjman's views as a democratic dissident without the distortion or bias previously translated editions have included.

 At the Embassy ceremony last November, Dr. Miomir Zuzul, Croatia's Ambassador to the United States, said it was an honor to be able to present Horrors of War to the President. "President Tudjman's erudition and firsthand experience of the horrors of war are interwoven into his study of philosophy and the role of violence in history," Ambassador Zuzul commented, adding that "his experience as a participant in the anti-fascist movement during the Second World War was crucial in forging peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Washington and Dayton Accords."

 The Honorable Thomas Patrick Melady, former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, said he was honored to have written the introduction to the book, adding that it is important that the whole world be acquainted with Croatian history: not just its recent history and the suffering during the Second World War and under Communism, but also the history of the 18th and 19th centuries.

 Reflecting on his experience as U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See during the critical period of the emergence of Croatia as a sovereign and independent state, Ambassador Melady noted that Western countries and the United States had been cut off for years from what was happening in Croatia. In the introduction, Ambassador Melady writes that the book is many things: "a political memoir, intellectual tour de force, political document of an important period in the country's history and a broad historical philosophical survey. The book gives many insights into the mind of the statesman who guided the Croatian people to the establishment of a state, fully accepted by the international community. Both President Tudjman and the Republic of Croatia will be prominent participants in the new Europe and in the world community of the third millennium."

 President Tudjman said that during his study of general history and philosophy, and on the basis of his personal experience, he has accepted two ideas: First, that in the life of an individual or a nation, nothing happens by accident and everything has its deep causes. The second idea, which has been deeply rooted in the people and reflected in their philosophical wisdom, is that any evil in the life of an individual or a nation is not just for the sake of evil. Highlighting the significance of the English translation of the book, President Tudjman said the book, like Croatian history, had been exposed to many misinterpretations.

 The President's insights and perspicacious understanding of the history of Croatian and Serbian relations nurtured hope that estrangement and conflict in the former Yugoslavia was avoidable. In 1989 in Horrors of War, President Tudjman wrote that the fundamental preconditions to escape the historical wilderness of Serbian-Croatian relations would be satisfied if all historical events were examined rationally and soberly, the national identities of the Croatian and Serbian nations were accepted, the right to self-determination and statehood was recognized, and that outstanding questions could be resolved by negotiations in order to achieve harmonious coexistence.

 Horrors of War was published by M. Evans and Company, Inc., New York.