The Presidential Years 369
them of plotting against him and of maintaining relations with the Russians
with the intention of inviting them to intervene in Yugoslavia. Never before
had he so openly criticized the army, and his words had an explosive effect.
During the night of 8 May 1971, at a secret meeting with high-level personali-
ties (Bakarić, Kardelj, Ljubičić, and Milentije and Koča Popović), he was even
more blunt: he spoke about spies and putschists at the top of the Serb League
of Communists, stressing that not only should some generals be arrested, but
also Ranković, their crony. He did not stop there, but reproached Mijalko
Todorović, who had recently dared foretell his death in Moscow, saying that
he was the main instigator for the counterrevolution in Belgrade and asserting:
“I know it. They plot against me!” He asked for the expulsion of Todorović
from the party, accusing him of acting as an intermediary between the Serbs
and the Russians. “In Belgrade, they say that I am an empty gun,” Tito com-
plained. “But I am not, and am looking forward to demonstrating this on
somebody.”^575
This attack against prominent politicians who represented Serbia in the
highest organs of the federation and the league was also directed at Kardelj
and Bakarić. As noted by Latinka Perović, the secretary of the Serbian LC, it
was an attack on those who had tried to free Yugoslavia from Stalinist social-
ism. Although the party leaders saw Tito as a hindrance to the development
of society, they were conscious that he represented a bulwark against the Soviet
Union, and therefore did not oppose him.^576 This, however, was not enough
for the marshal. Milentije Popović was very close to Mijalko Todorović and
called his friend immediately to inform him what was going on. They agreed
to meet the following day at the Delegates Club in Belgrade. While they were
meeting Popović received a dispatch in which Tito confirmed his accusations
against them both. He was so upset that he had a stroke and died on the spot.^577
Some four weeks after the Seventeenth Plenum, on 2 June 1971, a new ple-
num convened in Belgrade, tasked with examining the results of the decisions
made at Brioni. Against all odds, the participants deemed the domestic politi-
cal situation positive, and reached a sort of ceasefire, stating that they would no
longer broadcast their disagreements. “Everybody should make a clean sweep
of his own house,” as Marko Nikezić said. Regarding the constitutional amend-
ments, they decided to approve them as soon as possible, “in the spirit of Brioni,”
and planned a timetable that foresaw a vote at the Federal Assembly that same
month, and the election of the state president and the new collective presidency
the next. Thereafter a new federal council would be installed, and its members
would be named.^578
At that moment, Tito hoped to find an ally in Miko Tripalo. During the
session of the Executive Bureau, on 15 June 1971, he invited him to a private