page_title: Dragiša Vasić
section_title: Central National Committee, Congress of Ba and Operation Halyard
hierarchical_section_title: Dragiša Vasić / World War II / Central National Committee, Congress of Ba and Operation Halyard
caption_attribution_description: Српски / srpski: Капетан Предраг Раковић, генерал Драгољуб Михаиловић и академик Драгиша Васић, након избављења из обруча током операције „Шварц, мај 1943. у долини Лима. Иза, највиши, мајор Миљан Јанкетић, командант Пратећег батаљона.English: Chetnik leader Draza Mihailovic confers with his men. Español: El dirigente chetnik Draža Mihajlović conversando con algunos de sus hombres.
context_page_description: Dragomir "Dragiša" Vasić was a Serbian lawyer, writer and publicist who became one of the chief Chetnik ideologues during World War II. He finished law school in Belgrade and fought with the Serbian Army during the Balkan Wars and World War I. During the interwar period, he worked as a lawyer and represented a number of communist defendants. He was a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and became a correspondent at the Academy of Fine Arts on 12 February 1934. In 1936, he joined the Serbian Cultural Club and later became its vice-president. He is reported to have developed connections with Soviet intelligence services during this time.
  Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, he joined the Chetniks and became one of the three most important members of the Central National Committee established in August 1941 by Chetnik leader Draža Mihailović. Vasić quickly became Mihailović's right-hand man and remained so until 1943, when Mihailović named Stevan Moljević as head of the Central National Committee. In 1945, Vasić joined Chetnik commander Pavle Đurišić and his forces as they began withdrawing from Montenegro towards Slovenia.
context_section_description: Vasić aligned himself with Draža Mihailović and his Chetniks in the summer of 1941, following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia that April. In August, Mihailović named him to the Central National Committee. Vasić was one of the three most important members of the committee, the other two being Bosnian Serb lawyer Dr Stevan Moljević and Vasić's former law partner and fellow Republican Mladen Žujović. The three formed Mihailović's so-called Executive Council for much of the war, and Vasić was specifically designated as the individual who would succeed Mihailović as leader of the Chetnik movement should anything happen to him. At some point in 1941, Mihailović designated Vasić as head of the committee. According to historian Stevan K. Pavlowitch, Vasić was effectively Mihailović's right-hand man. The Central Committee advised him on matters of domestic and international politics and maintained liaison with civilian followers of the Chetniks in Serbia and other regions. Historian Jozo Tomasevich notes that Vasić was "unsuited" to be the head of the committee, due to his "personality and lack of political experience".
  Vasić became one of the two principal Chetnik ideologues, alongside Moljević. He began expressing vehemently anti-communist views after joining the Chetniks and opposed any collaboration with the Germans and Italians. He wrote:
  I have always supported the idea of opposing the communists. This is what I have been telling the Commander [Mihailović] from the very first day. But I also advised him that their extermination should be left to the Germans and Italians. We would only need to secure the territory, which is what we did in Serbia in 1941. In no way should we fight against them with the occupying forces. The civil war, which the Commander instigated, is not popular with our people. Our people love freedom and hate anyone who tries to enslave them. For this reason, they cannot accept open collaboration of some of our commanders with the Germans and Italian troops, who have subjected them to unspeakable terror and atrocious crimes. This is what is most horrible for us and what could bring real catastrophe. I am increasingly convinced that this open collaboration of our commanders with the Italian and German troops is the main reason for our defeats in combat with the Partisans, both militarily and politically.
  Moljević wrote to Vasić in December 1941 and outlined his plan for the cleansing of Yugoslavia of all non-Serbian elements by Serbian refugees. He stated that Serbs should take control of "all strategic points" in Yugoslavia and claimed that a large Serbian state was what Serbs had been fighting for since the time of Karađorđe. In February 1942, Vasić received a letter from Moljević concerning the creation of a Greater Serbia stretching to Dalmatia and the Adriatic coast. Moljević wrote that the "cleansing" (čisčenje) of all non-Serbs would be needed if such a state was to survive. He stated that Croats should be deported to Croatia and Muslims to Albania or Turkey. Author Mitja Velikonja writes that Vasić endorsed such a plan. In 1943, he resigned as head of the Central National Committee in protest of continued Chetnik collaboration with the Italians. He was succeeded by Moljević. Tomasevich notes that the quality of political advice that Mihailović received did not improve even after Moljević replaced Vasić as his main political advisor.
  Vasić stood opposed to the Ba Congress, organized by the Chetniks between 25 and 28 January 1944 in the Serbian village of Ba. He was particularly opposed to the political concepts laid out by Moljević and socialist politician Živko Topalović, stating: "I do not know why the Commander [Mihailović] needed this congress; I have to admit [it] was a circus of formality as far as I'm concerned."
  In July 1944, Vasić and his wife met with Richard Felman and other American pilots, whose B-24 Liberators were shot down by the Germans near the Serbian village of Pranjani. Vasić told Felman that the Chetniks would do everything in their power to protect the downed airmen and explai
caption: Vasić (second from right) speaking with Draža Mihailović and other Chetniks.
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