328 The Presidential Years
In Belgrade at the end of 1965, the rumors that Ranković would assume
power before Tito’s death grew louder.^332 This was also confirmed by telegrams
sent to some ambassadors abroad, where it was written that the health of the
marshal was not good (he had the flu) and that changes were ahead.^333 Tito,
who in the past had nurtured friendly feelings toward “Leka,” suspected that
he was anxious to replace him, and for a long time could not decide what to
do. As he confessed later, this was also because he had to wait until the balance
of power in the party and the army were in his favor.^334 This happened between
1965 and 1966. Shortly after Christmas, Ranković resigned from the presidency
of the influential Veterans Association, which he had led for decades. This
was significant, as was the CC of the Slovenian League’s contemporaneous
criticism of the UDBA (or the Service for National Security, as it had been
recently renamed), asking for the limitation of its powers, a proposal shared
by the Macedonians who, like the Slovenes and Croats, were terrified of Serb
nationalism.^335
Public opinion in Belgrade saw things differently. Although in the past
the Serbs hated Ranković because he had masterminded the arrest of Draža
Mihail ović, they now adored him, seeing in him a protector of their interests.
When he drove through the city center, pedestrians applauded him, shout-
ing “Leka, Leka,” or sometimes “Leka for president.”^336 This and much more
reached Tito’s ears. But what was critical for Ranković was his weakness in
the Serbian League, since a liberal trend had increased within it from May 1965
onward, opposing internal “enemy elements.”^337 By mid-March 1966, this pro-
gressive group exploited a session of the local CC in order to condemn the
hostile attitude of the leading politicians of the republic toward the reforms,
stressing that they should be removed in favor of younger cadres. During the
discussion the liberals said that the past errors of the Serb leadership had
caused the resurgence of “nationalist phenomena” in the republic and also
among neighboring ethnic groups.^338 The warnings against nationalism were
constantly repeated in the following weeks, culminating on “Youth Day” on
25 May, when Tito himself mentioned them in his speech, referring obviously
to the situation in Serbia.^339
Into this atmosphere of intrigue, tension, and uncertainty Bakarić appeared.
He had lauded the UDBA on the twentieth anniversary of its foundation in
1964, thus emphasizing its connection with the people and the party.^340 Tw o
years later, he took a completely different position, using his ability to operate
behind the scenes. With Tito’s consent, in a series of speeches he criticized the
prevailing climate of suspicion in Yugoslav society, and with this implicitly
Ranković. At the beginning of March, he gave an interview to Borba in which
he condemned the nationalism and chauvinism that had spread not just among