THE SNOW WAS already drifting waist-deep and the fog was hanging low when the first American soldiers of the NATO Implementation Force reached Bosnia. They made it just in time to spend Christmas 1995 in woodenfloored tents that kept out the cold reasonably well but offered none of their families' warmth. Outside in the frostbiting temperatures, they performed tasks ranging from setting up radar and satellite communication equipment to bulldozing shell craters in airport runways. Their fingers and toes numbed up and tingled as they worked and their breath seemed to freeze in front of their faces.

No complaints

These men, mostly from the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division, did not complain, however, at least not while the media listened in. Among themselves, some did grouse about not being able to display the American...