Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-09-09
YuoosIuviu Not Grim to Him

am a YugoSlav physician and came
to the United States six months ago to
specialize in virology. was looking
forward to visiting your country with
great pleasure knowing that would
find here the same amount OF friend
illness as any one can feel in Yugoslav1a
toward the United States of America.
I have since heard both praise and
criticism in regard to my country. I
did not mind criticism, because when
ever felt it was not justified and tried
to explain why. found Americans &C
cessible to arguments and seldom preju-
diced. In most cases was pleased to
see that your people agree that each
nation should have it's internal develop
ment as it wishes and that none should
be blamed if it happened to choose a
regime different from yours, provided
it is peace-loving, friendly and CO.
operative.
Consequently, I was struck by the
article by Harry F. Byrd, jr., Life Is
Gil i'm in Communist Yugoslavia" pub
lis he'd in The Star on August 2D, not
because of it's criticism although felt
such criticism was not justified-but
tecause I feared that your readers
would get out of it an entirely false
picture about my country's development
and this may cause harm to the friend
ship and cooperation between our two
countries.
Mr.. Byrd states that "Yugoslavia
probably gives the best insight into
conditions behind the Iron Curtain"
If that were so, how can it be ex-
planned that Yugoslavia has SO vigor-
ously fought to extract herself from
behind the Iron Curtain and has be-
come the enemy No. in Soviet propa-
ganda? We are a proud nation that
has it's own ideas about its life and
progress. We want to be friendly and
cooperative with all but subservient
and satellite to none. History has shown
that many times.
I also think that it is unjustified to
compare the standard of living, the
number of automobiles, ETC., in Yugo-
slavia with that in the United States
Your country is by far the richest in
the world. Before the last war ours
was one of the least developed in Eu-
rope. This is the sad heritage of the
old regimes of Yugoslavia that failed
to use the abundant natural resources
to raise the standard of living. This
is exactly why our people fought the
past and established new economic and
social relations for the benefit of the
broadest strata Of the population. Now
we are making tremendous efforts to
supply precisely those articles, the
shortage of which Mr.. Byrd points out,
but greatly exaggerates. This is
result Of the horrible war destruction
and above all of the enormous expen-
diture for our national defense.
am afraid that Mr.. Byrd spent too
little time in my hospitable country and
that is why he could have been SO
much influenced by sources whose ira
ditional hostility" he himself correctly
ascertains. I think that your readers
in order to get some indication on Yu-
goslavia should also read what Mrs.
Roosevelt. Gov. Stevenson, Walter Lipp-
man, George Allen. former United
States Ambassador to Yugoslavia, and
many other outstanding Americans
wrote after their visit to my country.
And hope that Mr.. Byrd will make
another trip soon and that then
he will find out what the enormous
majority of the population thinks of
their development and perspectives.
Zdravk0 Jelesic, MD.