Josip Broz Tito[1] (7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), in Cyrillic Јосип Броз Тито, was the leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1943 until his death in 1980. Born in Croatia to a Croat father and a Slovenian mother, he identified as a Croat. During World War II, Tito organized the anti-fascistresistance movement known as the Yugoslav Partisans. He was Secretary-General (later President) of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (1939–80). He also served as Prime Minister (1944–63) and later President (1953–80) of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). From 1943 to his death in 1980 he held the rank of Marshal of Yugoslavia, serving as the supreme commander of the Yugoslav military.
Despite being one of the founders of Cominform, he was also the only successful Cominform member to defy Soviet hegemony. Tito ruled Yugoslavia with an iron fist. Shortly after his death, the various ethnic groups he had held together returned to their hereditary conflicts.
Josip Broz Tito was the ruler of Yugoslavia at the outbreak of World War III. While Tito's government was communist, it was also deviationist; Tito had broken with Stalin and had stayed neutral during the war. Nonetheless, one Soviet Tu-4 violated Yugoslav airspace on its way to bomb Bordeaux, France; it was undetected.[2]
In September 1952, Tito's government acted as intermediary in peace negotiations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. Tito sent Foreign Minister Edvard Kardelj to meet with PresidentHarry Truman, offering China's proposal for ending the Korean theater. During their meeting, the Slovenian Kardelj also took the occasion to praise 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.[3]
1=denotes a character who was a POV for one volume or less
2=denotes a character who was a POV for two volumes
3=denotes a character who was a POV for three volumes
† Denotes a deceased POV.