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Edvard Kardelj
Kardelj
Historical Figure
Nationality: Slovenian citizen of Yugoslavia (born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire)
Year of Birth: 1910
Year of Death: 1979
Cause of Death: Colon cancer
Religion: Atheist
Occupation: Revolutionary, journalist, educator, partisan, politician
Spouse: Pepca Maček
Children: Borut
Military Branch: Slovene Partisans (World War II)
Political Party: Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation,
Communist Party of Yugoslavia
Political Office(s): Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Deputy Prime Minister
Fictional Appearances:
The Hot War
POD: November, 1950
Appearance(s): Armistice
Type of Appearance: Direct

Edvard Kardelj (27 January 1910 – 10 February 1979) was a Slovenian-Yugoslavian journalist, and one of the leading members of the Communist Party of Slovenia before World War II. During the war he was one of the leaders of the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People and a Slovene Partisan, and after the war a federal political leader in communist Yugoslavia. His offices included Deputy Prime Minister (1946-1963) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1948-1953).

Edvard Kardelj in The Hot War[]

Edvard Kardelj was Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia, a nation which had remained neutral in World War III. Yugoslavia was one of the few governments on Earth which had diplomatic relations with both the People's Republic of China and the United States of America. For this reason, the Chinese asked Kardelj to carry their request for a ceasefire to Philadelphia, the provisional American capital, in 1952.

President Harry Truman accepted the Chinese proposal of status quo ante bellum in Asia, provided that the Chinese would pressure North Korea to withdraw its forces north of the 38th Parallel. Kardelj had anticipated this condition and informed Truman that Chou En-Lai had already assured the Yugoslav government that this would be acceptable to the Chinese.

With peace terms concluded, Truman, Kardelj, and their translator drank a toast of Yugoslav slivovitz, which Kardelj insisted was superior to the Hungarian form that tasted like paint thinner. The Slovenian Kardelj also took the occasion to praise Marshal Tito's policy of equal-opportunity employment for all Yugoslav groups, in contrast to the Serbian tyranny of the Monarchists and the Croatian tyranny of the Ustaše. Truman was somewhat dubious about this rose-colored view of Tito's rule.[1]

References[]

  1. Armistice, pgs. 275-278, paperback; pgs. 277-280, loc. 4403-4463, ebook.
Political offices
(OTL)
New title Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
1946–1963
Succeeded by
Boris Kraigher
Miloš Minić
Veljko Zeković
Preceded by
Stanoje Simić
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia
1948–1953
Succeeded by
Koča Popović
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