IN 1989 ONE man did step forward and try to hold Yugoslavia together in his own opportunistic way. His name was Slobodan Miloševic, the newly elected president of the Serb Republic. He was driven by a personal quest for power that he hoped to manifest by uniting and controlling all Serbs living throughout the Balkans in what has been called "Greater Serbia."

When the other republics threatened to secede from Yugoslavia if he attempted such a move, Miloševic declared that he would use military force to keep the nation together. Since he controlled the Serb-dominated Yugoslav National Army (the fourth largest in Europe), such threats had to be taken seriously.

The Kosovo example

Miloševic devised a cunning strategy to mobilize the patriotic and honest Serbian people behind his personal power-grab. Using the government-controlled...