The Presidential Years 295
Sweden in 1958). On 1 December 1958, Tito sailed on board his yacht, the Galeb,
for a round trip that included Indonesia, Burma, India, Ceylon, Ethiopia,
Sudan, the United Arab Republic (Egypt and Syria), and Greece. As the West
German ambassador in New Delhi wrote, his “unofficial” visit to the Indian
capital on 14–16 January was greeted with particular warmth. It was clear that
Nehru greatly valued his guest’s opinion regarding relations with Moscow, and
that a close friendship had developed between the two countries. The Yugoslav
statesman enjoyed enormous respect and exercised extraordinary influence for
his resolute anticolonialist stance, not just in India but also in other Asian and
African countries, especially Algeria, where they were fighting for their inde-
pendence from France.
Tito’s and his wife’s visit to Ceylon was marked by royal grandeur. The
Yugoslav ambassador was able to arrange for the marshal the same treatment
reserved some years earlier for Queen Elizabeth II of England. (It is a pity that
Tito did not enjoy the local cuisine.) He was received with similar pomp in
Indonesia, at the court of Ethiopia’s emperor, Haile Selassie, and later in Sudan
and in Egypt. Only in Burma was the hospitality not as friendly and lavish as
had been anticipated.^166
Because of the great deal of preparation needed, the number of the people
involved, the quantity of baggage, the receptions, the hunting parties, and so
on, this Afro-Asian trip was exceedingly pompous in nature, recalling Napo-
leonic expeditions. In Yugoslavia, naturally no one dared to grumble aloud.
However, Dobrica Ćosić wrote in his diary: “Tito, this great statesman and
fighter, had neither the force nor the wisdom to save his political triumph from
regal and absolutist temptations, ruining his modern ideas regarding peace and
the survival of civilization from conflicts and struggles of opposing blocs with
feudal behavior, with operettas, parades, costumes and a circus of ships, aircraft
and court trash.”^167
In August 1957 during a visit to Romania, Tito promised Khrushchev that he
would use his influence in Asia and Africa to further the common interests of
the socialist camp. Because of the ideological attacks he had suffered in recent
years, however, he did the opposite: everywhere he went, he tried to convince
his interlocutors to be wary of the Soviet Union and China, offering them a
detailed report of his own recent experiences. If in Moscow they pretended not
to hear, in Beijing they considered such behavior proof of Yugoslav connivance
with the “imperialist aggressors.” By contrast, his information was accepted and
valued in London and Washington. The State Department commented that in
this role as critic of Soviet and Chinese aggressiveness, Tito was more impor-
tant than if he had been a member of the Western alliance.^168 They would not
have been so satisfied had they known that Tito had started his “great peace