Vladimir Velebit

Vladimir Velebit Portrait

Vladimir "Vlatko" Velebit,PhD(19 August 1907 – 29 August 2004) was a Yugoslav politician, diplomat and military leader who rose the rank of Major-General duringWorld War II.A lawyer by profession, after the war he became a diplomat andhistorian.

Among his notable post-World War IIappointments were theYugoslavAmbassador toRomeas well as theCourt of St. James'sandWorld Bank.Additionally, he was Yugoslav Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, andUNECEExecutive Secretary from 1960 to 1967.

Early life and education

Born inZadar,Austria-Hungaryto Serbian father Ljubomir Velebit and Slovenian-Croatian mother Olga Šeme, Vladimir's family had a long military tradition. His father Ljubomir was an officer in theAustro-Hungarian Army,fighting on theRussian frontduringWorld War Iand later becoming brigadier-general in theRoyal Yugoslav Army,while Vladimir's paternal grandfather Dušan Velebit was a general in the Austrian Army who married Elisabeth Marno von Eichenhorst, daughter of another Austrian general Adolf Marno von Eichenhorst. Even Vladimir's great grandfather Ilija Velebit was an officer in the Austrian army.

His male ancestors were Serbs originating from the village ofGornja PastušanearPetrinjain theBanijaregion that was part of the Austrian-createdMilitary Frontier.They were recruited into the Austrian army, eventually achieving high ranks.

Velebit began his formal education inTimișoarainGerman language.His family left the city just after the outbreak of World War I and went toTriestewhile his father was off in Russia fighting for the Austro-Hungarians. Young Vladimir was soon moved again, this time toViennawhere he got enrolled in a private school that held classes inFrench language.Following the end of the war in 1918 and the final break-up ofAustria-Hungary,the family moved toZagrebwhich was now part of the newly createdKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.At this point, 11-year-old Vladimir spoke very littleSerbo-Croatianand had to study hard to be able to communicate in school. Due to his father's (who was now in the Royal Yugoslav Army) job, the family then moved toČakovecand later toVaraždin,which is where Vladimir graduated high school in 1925.

He started studies at theUniversity of Zagreb's Faculty of Law and then went to Paris forspecialization,before returning to Zagreb to graduate in 1931. He earned his PhD two years later in 1933 from the same university.

Legal career and communist activities on the side

After passing the lawyer's and judge's exams, Velebit began working as legal assistant at the District Court inNiš.Accused of having leftist political leanings during his student days he got transferred toLeskovac.Once there he hooked up withCommunist Party(KPJ) members (a political party that was at the time an underground organization because of the ban on its activities in theKingdom of Yugoslavia) and took part in starting the newspaperLeskovačke nedeljne novinethat wasn't openly communist, but supported political opposition to the ruling coalition and by proxy to KingAlexander I Karađorđević.Because of this Velebit got transferred again, this time toPrištinawhere he was a judge in the County Court. The continual career demotion didn't deter Velebit from continuing with leftist activity; in Priština he started a readers' group that met clandestinely in his room to read Marxist literature and discuss politics. When authorities caught wind of this, the county sheriff ordered his room to be searched, but nothing incriminating was found. Velebit then became the chief of County Court inKičevo,and later got transferred toŠidwhere he established contact with more KPJ members among whom wasHerta Haas(at the time a student at Economics High School in Zagreb, later to becomeJosip Broz Tito's wife).

By 1937 Velebit had enough of being a judge, and moved to Zagreb where he established a law practice. Already deeply involved with the communists, in parallel with his legal practice he became a courier for the underground movement. Due to the nature of his job and a considerable network of professional connections, he was perfectly suitable for carrying messages to foreign countries. On one of those trips toIstanbulin 1939, 32-year-old Velebit met 47-year-old Josip Broz Tito who was KPJ's general secretary at the time. Being impressed with Velebit's guile, skills, and intelligence, Tito immediately offered him membership in the party. After becoming a full-fledged member Velebit began working as assistant toJosip Kopinič,Comintern's agent in Zagreb. In 1940 Velebit obtained and set up a radio station used to establish daily contact withMoscow- the station was never discovered and was functional throughout the war.

World War II

FollowingApril 1941 Nazi invasion and dismemberment of the Yugoslav Kingdom,Velebit stayed in Zagreb that became capital of the newly created Nazi client,Ustaše-run puppet state entityIndependent State of Croatia(NDH). He operated as an underground collaborator of the KPJ-establishedPeople's Liberation Front.While working underground he used the alias name Vladimir Petrović, although due to being a well known and respected lawyer before the war he experienced no trouble with NDH authorities.

During March 1942 Velebit left Zagreb and joined thePartisanswho mounted a guerrilla resistance to the Nazis and domestic collaborationists. Right away Tito included him in the army's Supreme Command where he mostly worked on establishing some sort of military court authority. Due to his education and knowledge of foreign languages, along withKoča PopovićandMilovan Đilas,Velebit was part of the Partisan delegation inGornji Vakufand Zagreb at the controversial March 1943German-Partisan negotiationswhile theBattle of Neretvaraged several hundred kilometers to the south. Velebit and Đilas conducted the negotiations under pseudonyms Vladimir Petrović and Miloš Marković, respectively, while Koča Popović gave his real name.

In June 1943, Velebit became the point of contact for foreign military missions in their dealings with the Partisans. Following the death ofIvo Lola Ribar(member of Supreme Command and the chief of Partisan first military mission) on 27 November 1943, Velebit took over his duties. Following theTeheran Conferencewhere the Allies agreed on backing the Partisan resistance exclusively over theChetnikone, Velebit was sent to theNear Eastwith lieutenant-colonelMiloje Milojevićfor negotiations over the details and scope of the support. After establishing first contact with the Allies inCairo,he was on his way toLondonfor further negotiations. Once there, Velebit had meetings with British envoysFitzroy MacleanandWilliam Deakinover the formal recognition of the People's Liberation Front as a new state entity. In May 1944 Velebit met withWinston Churchilland was also present inCasertanearNaplesduring Churchill's meeting with Tito on 12 August 1944.

Post-war diplomatic career

Right after the end of World War II Velebit continued his diplomatic activity.

In theDemocratic Federal Yugoslavia's provisionary government that got formed on the basis of British-brokeredTreaty of Visand later theBelgrade Agreement,he was the deputy to the Foreign Affairs Minister. He then became one of the chief members of the secret Yugoslav diplomatic mission toWashington,negotiating the terms and scope of the American help to Yugoslavia. After returning home to the country that was in the meantime re-constituted as aStalinistcommunist state calledFederal People's Republic of Yugoslavia,he became deputy to Foreign Affairs MinisterStanoje Simić.In that role, Velebit negotiated with the Allies during theTrieste Crisis.

In March 1948, after Soviet accusation that he was a British spy, Velebit was forced into resigning his post at the Yugoslav Foreign Affairs Ministry and got moved to the Tourist and Service Industry Committee. During the 1948Cominformresolution and the fallout of subsequent Tito–Stalin split, Velebit was on more than one occasion cited by the Soviets as a spy who works for the British.

In 1951, Velebit became Yugoslav ambassador toItaly,while a year later he got the same job in theUnited Kingdom.During March 1953, he prepared Tito's first official state visit to a Western country. Tito thus became the first communist leader to visit the UK.

In 1960, on invitation from theUnited Nationssecretary-generalDag Hammarskjöld,Velebit became executive secretary at the UN European Economic Commission (UNECE) inGeneva.He performed this job up until his retirement in 1967. Known in Western circles as a skilled diplomat, his last assignment was as an emissary of theCarnegie Foundationin the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In the early 1990s during theYugoslav breakupand the beginning stages of theYugoslav Wars,Velebit moved from London to Zagreb due to nationalist threats. Once back he divided his time between Zagreb andMali Lošinj.

In 1992, Velebit was a contributor for theRadio Television of Serbiadocumentary series entitledYugoslavia in War 1941–1945.

During retirement he wrote two books 1983'sSećanja(Memories) and 2002'sTajne i zamke Drugog svetskog rata(World War II's Secrets and Traps).

He died on 29 August 2004 at the Rebro clinical center in Zagreb. He was buried at the city's Mirogoj Cemetery on 3 September 2004.

Vladimir Velebit is mentioned in the 2009 bookA Rat Hole to be Watchedby American historian Coleman Armstrong Mehta as the point of contact betweenFrank Wisner(head of theCentral Intelligence Agency'sDirectorate of Plans) and Yugoslav communist government during the early 1950s. Wisner apparently contacted Velebit because he was known to be the leading proponent of the idea that Yugoslav state should be oriented towards theWest.According to Mehta's book that's based upon recently declassified American intelligence documents, the Wisner-Velebit contact, which occurred in the wake ofTito–Stalin split,eventually resulted in intelligence cooperation agreement between theUnited StatesandFederal People's Republic of Yugoslavia.The agreement enabled the Americans to get their hands on recently developed and deployedMiG-15Soviet fighter plane, which was delivered to them by theJosip Broz Tito's Yugoslav government in 1951.

Personal

Velebit married Vera Becić, a woman of Croatian ethnicity, the daughter of Croatian painterVladimir Becić.They had two sons: Vladimir Jr. and Dušan.

See also

• Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• Yugoslav People's Army
• Titoism
• Communism