Tito’s Death and His Political Legacy, 1980 453
national bank. He was aware that doing so would signal to the world that the
economic situation in Yugoslavia was disastrous.^116 The country’s debt stood at
about $21 billion and a good part of the GNP went toward repayment. About
6.5 percent of the population was jobless, despite the security valve of mass
emigration of the most enterprising young people to the West.
After the visit Tito was released from the Clinical Center even though doc-
tors considered surgery necessary. After a further hospitalization, on the advice
of the famous American specialist Michael De Bakey and the Russian Marat
Kniazhev, the doctors decided to try a bypass of the femoral artery of the left
leg. The operation did not have a favorable outcome and only a week later the
news came that the leg would have to be amputated to avoid gangrene. When
he was informed about this after waking from anesthesia, Tito was so stricken
that he threatened suicide with the pistol that he had kept under his pillow,
from his clandestine years on.^117 He tried to refuse surgical treatment, claiming
that he was fed up with life. He was born with two legs and was not ready to
die a cripple, but at last, in extremis, he agreed to surgery.^118
It was evident that he was fighting his last battle and political leaders began
to prepare for his funeral as early as mid-February. The inter national situa-
tion was anything but favorable, since on 27 December 1979 the Soviet Union
had invaded Afghanistan to safeguard its interests there. This move against a
member of the Non-Aligned Movement confirmed the conviction that Yugo-
slavs, too, were in danger, considering their strategic position in the Mediter-
ranean and their unrepentant “revisionism.” “Today in Afghanistan, tomorrow
in your house,” sang the Zagreb students, which the authorities stopped with
the help of police.^119 It was evident that the Soviets were ready to use arms to
achieve their foreign policy aims, and not just in Central Asia. “It is a shame,”
said Tito. “There are no guarantees that they will not invade another country in
the same way. Us too.”^120 This fear was also shared by the White House, prompt-
ing President Jimmy Carter to send a personal letter in support of Tito.^121 For
her part, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, in wishing Tito a speedy
recovery, declared in the House of Commons: “We will do everything possible
to assure the independence of Yugoslavia.”^122 This assurance was very much
appreciated by the Yugoslavs, who counted first of all “on our friends in the
West,” as Secretary of Defense Ljubičić said to the chief of the British Air
Force.^123 Meanwhile, a panicked atmosphere spread throughout the country:
people looted shops, many decided to withdraw savings from the banks, some
even emigrated to the West. The army was put in a partial state of alert, while
tanks and cannons were dispatched around Belgrade and other major cities.^124
According to CIA information, some high-ranking politicians even spoke, as
they had in the fifties, of a preventive strike against Albania, which would cover