To Los Angeles Times, by Jerry Blaskovich

Los Angeles Times

Letters to the Editor

Times Mirror Square

Los Angeles, Calif. 90053

May 8, 1993

Reference: Buchanan's article "America has no Business in Bosnia"

Editor:

It is disappointing to see how Patrick Buchanan's political pendulum swings. Once perceived by many as a champion of self-determination, he caught the imagination of a sizable segment of the population to an extent that he came to be a threat to George Bush in the primaries.

In November 1991 Buchanan expressed in print and public speeches moral outrage about the Serb aggression in Croatia. He advocated lifting the arms embargo on Croatia, using the Sixth Fleet to break the siege of Dubrovnik, and bombing Belgrade. Comparing the Western democracies as witnesses to the Serb rape in Croatia to Kitty Genovese rape witnesses, he piqued the conscience of the America public. With the same actors and scenario being played in Bosnia, but to a greater degree in Bosnia, is Croatia any less a victim?

Ever since Buchanan was allowed to speak at the Republican convention, he suddenly developed a blind spot to Serbian aggression. Previously, the Croatian-American communities responded to his statements generously. In Southern California alone, they gave in excess of $50,000 to his campaign.

Buchanan's article echoing the conservative viewpoint of the Republican Party apparently has no compassion or humanistic feelings that suggested he was taught by Jesuits and knows full well the hatreds in the former Yugoslavia are not ancient. Before they were cobbled together after World War I, the Serbs and Croatians had a remarkable symbiotic relationship. Their first armed conflict between them occurred during World War Two.