372 The Presidential Years
newly recovered sovereignty awarded by the constitutional amendments, he
was welcomed jubilantly. The population took to the streets and squares, cheer-
ing him with enthusiasm when he strolled through the city center in the com-
pany of local leaders.^591 By the end of his tour in the republic, he had mellowed
dramatically in his attitude toward the maspok (mass movement), and became
convinced, probably under Krleža’s influence, that it was just a popular move-
ment and not at all dangerous. During a gala dinner for two hundred guests at
the Hotel Esplanade, he declared unexpectedly that the doomsayers of Croat
nationalism were groundless: “Now, when we have established, with the amend-
ments, the premises for a final solution to the national question, granting every
republic the dignity of the state, we have not disintegrated our society, socialist
Yugoslavia, but on the contrary, we have strengthened the unity on a new basis,
as it should be in a multinational reality. This is what we want. Here in Croatia
I have seen a lot and learned a lot. The next time, I will know how to correctly
evaluate certain information and certain words,” he said, referring to the bug-
bear of Croatian nationalism.^592
The speech, broadcast on TV, was greeted with delirious applause, but not
by all.^593 Those who had begun distancing themselves from the Zagreb leaders,
or even to criticize them, were in shock: Bakarić’s face was gray and sweaty,
Kardelj was furious, and so was Jovanka.^594 It is possible to argue over just how
sincere Tito was, and how much this was a tactical move on the eve of a meet-
ing with Brezhnev and Richard Nixon to show that Yugoslavia was not in cri-
sis, as the foreign press had declared.^595 The Serbs, however, were outraged at
his words, convinced that Tito was trying to curry favor with the Croats in
order to balance his unpopularity in Belgrade. So it was that a campaign of
hostile propaganda was begun against him. It was said that he was the “grave-
digger of Yugoslavia,” that a civil war was imminent, that the army would be
fatally involved, that Russian intervention was inevitable.^596 Tito tried to miti-
gate the unfavorable impression kindled by his words, affirming during a meet-
ing with reserve officers a month later that he did not feel connected to his
Croat origins because of the crimes of the Ustaša. This did not contribute to his
popularity in Zagreb, where people were saying that posterity would never for-
give him for the massacre of 140,000 Croats, most of them innocent, which
Tito had ordered at the end of the war. It seems that he changed his tune after
being informed that once the Esplanade dinner was over Savka Dabčević-
Kučar exulted: “We have duped that old fart again!” This was overheard by a
“bird”—as Vladimir Dedijer said—and the next morning the report was on his
table.^597 It was the “blackbird,” as the military counterintelligence service, or
KOS, was called.