The Presidential Years 345
These bold stances were not ignored in Washington, where Tito’s opinion
counted. At the end of 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent Ambassador-
at-Large W. Averell Harriman to Brioni with the task of consulting Tito about
a possible way out of the Vietnamese imbroglio. The marshal did not hide his
position: the first step would be to convince Hanoi to come to peace talks, the
United States should stop bombarding North Vietnam. Moreover, they would
do well to favor the formation of a “mixed” government in Saigon between the
bourgeois forces and the Vietcong similar to the one he had formed with
Šubašić after the war.^446 Washington did not follow this advice, but this did
not hinder the Johnson administration from continuing cordial relations with
Tito and supporting his economic reform financially.^447 His separate path to
socialism, which disturbed Moscow greatly, was of paramount importance to
the Americans because it differed from that of their Soviet nemesis.
The North Vietnam government was not particularly enthusiastic about
the Yugoslav marshal’s pacifist initiatives. In mid-June 1966, the Hanoi press
agency condemned his efforts to reach a political solution to the crisis: “Tito
cannot hide his servile attitude toward the American imperialists. It is public
knowledge that he tries to sell, at all costs, the outdated merchandise of the
peace talks produced by his patrons.” Reportedly Tito was hurt by these attacks,
especially because Ho Chi-Minh added personal criticisms to discredit him:
he alleged that the marshal was an imperialist lackey used to a luxurious, even
regal life.^448
The Arab-Israeli WarHo Chi Minh was right about Tito’s passion for luxury, but he was wrong about
the honesty of his anti-imperialism. For instance, he vigorously condemned
the military coup in Greece organized in April 1967 by a group of right-wing
colonels, with American assent. Tito believed that this maneuver was part of a
new NATO strategy based on the concept of a “preemptive strike” against
communism—although Greece was a constitutional monarchy, it did have a
strong communist party. He also reacted firmly on the occasion of the Arab-
Israeli War (or Six-Day War), in June 1967 which he believed could not have
been possible without Washington’s support of Tel Aviv. Because of his close
contacts with Nasser, he favored the Arab cause, which did not prevent him
from trying to mediate between Egypt and Israel.^449 When the war ended
in disaster for Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, with Israel occupying vast territories,
Tito did not give up: he formulated a five-point peace plan. The first and most
important two points called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops to the border
as it had been on 5 June, when the conflict had begun, providing in exchange