June 28, 1949: Marshal Josip Broz Tito, leader of Yugoslavia, sends a letter to Premier Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union, essentially telling him he's had enough of Stalin's crap.
He was born with the name Josip Broz on May 7, 1892, in Kumrovec, a village in Zagorje, in northern Croatia. At the time, it was part of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, a client state of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He trained as a locksmith, before serving in the Austrian Army in World War I. He was wounded and held as a prisoner of war by the Russians. In the POW camp, he became a Communist, and escaped.
Between the World Wars, he rose through the ranks of the Communist Party in the new nation of Yugoslavia, and was in de facto control of it from 1937 to 1980. When the Nazis invaded, he led the Partisan movement to kick them out. He had stood up to Adolf Hitler, and won.
(On October 4, 1945, 5 months after V-E Day, former members of this movement founded a sports club, JSD Partizan. Their soccer team, FK Partizan, or Partizan Belgrade, won 11 league titles in Yugoslavia; and, since the country's breakup, has won 16 titles in Serbia's top league.)
His leadership against the Nazis led to his admiration by all the ethnicities in his cobbled-together country, partly because he never lost the common touch. American journalist George Seldes, who lived to be 104 years old (1890-1995), had covered the rise and fall of many world leaders. He thought he had been friends with both Tito and Benito Mussolini, once a fellow journalist who had written him a letter calling him "Dear Colleague." But upon becoming dictator of Italy in 1922, Mussolini acted like he no longer cared about all the people who helped him get there. Tito never forgot: According to Seldes, "Mussolini... acted like we had never met. Tito greeted me as an old friend."
But while he was a Communist, Tito was also a nationalist. He wasn't interested in spreading Communism throughout the Balkans. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin was, and managed to turn Romania, Bulgaria and Albania red, and had designs on Greece and Turkey as well.
President Harry Truman's Truman Doctrine provided aid to Greece and Turkey, preventing both from turning Communist, and he discovered that Tito was willing to work with him. On May 4, 1948, Stalin publicly admonished both Tito and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
In 1949, Stalin put Soviet, Romanian and Hungarian troops and the border between southern Hungary and northern Yugoslavia (present-day Croatia). On June 28, the other member countries of the Cominform expelled Yugoslavia, citing "nationalist elements" that had "managed in the course of the past five or six months to reach a dominant position in the leadership" of the CPY.
The assumption in Moscow was that once it was known that he had lost Soviet approval, Tito would collapse. Stalin said, "I will shake my little finger, and there will be no more Tito." He took Tito's resistance as a personal affront, and arranged several assassination attempts on Tito's life. None of them succeeded.
Tito sent a letter to Stalin. In it, he wrote, "Stop sending people to kill me. We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb, and another with a rifle." He added, "If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send a second."
There were no further attempts. Stalin died on March 5, 1953. This letter was found in his desk. In 1955, the man who succeeded Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, visited Belgrade, apologized to Tito for Stalin's assassination attempts, and congratulated him on his survival: "You did well in protecting yourself. You had good guards and good informants who informed you about everything Stalin was planning for you."
Tito lived on until May 4, 1980. Both his country and Stalin's collapsed and broke into smaller nations in 1991.
Josip Tito was the only man to stand up to both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, and live to tell about it. He was no saint. But he was a hero, to both East and West.
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June 28, 1949 was a Tuesday. Baseball player Don Baylor and football running back Clarence Davis were born that day. And these baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. This was the season debut of Joe DiMaggio, who had missed the season's 1st 65 games with a bad heel. He hit a home run in this game, 2 in the next, and another in the next, in a 3-game Yankee sweep of the BoSox. Hank Bauer also hit a home run in this game, in support of Allie Reynolds. Bobby Doerr hit a home run for the Red Sox, and Ted Williams went 2-for-5.
* The New York Giants beat the Boston Braves, 2-1 at the Polo Grounds. The Giant runs come on solo home runs by Sid Gordon and Clint Hartung. Hartung, "the Hondo Hurricane," was also a pitcher, a pitcher who could hit, and was one of the most-hyped prospects in baseball history. It never worked out, although, on this day, he was not only the hero, but he outpitched a future Hall-of-Famer, Warren Spahn.
* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Preacher Roe outpitched Robin Roberts. He was supported by a home run from Duke Snider. Jackie Robinson went 1-for-4.
* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 6-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Bob Lemon outpitched Virgil Trucks.
* The St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-6 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Gerry Priddy singled home the winning run in the top of the 12th inning.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 5-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Howie Pollet allowed 8 hits, but kept the shutout. Stan Musial went 1-for-4.
* And the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds were rained out at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The game was made up on September 6. The Reds won, 6-3, scoring 4 runs in the top of the 10th inning, while the Pirates could only retaliate with 1.
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