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Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War

Play trailer Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War 2000 2h 45m Documentary Play Trailer Watchlist
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43% Tomatometer 7 Reviews Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
The documentary, which took four years to produce, and which was updated following NATO intervention in Kosovo, investigates how serious errors and misjudgments made by Western powers, particularly Germany and the United States, helped spark the violent break-up of the former Yugoslavia in 1991 and continue to destabilize the region in the new millennium. Produced by Frontier Theatre and Film Inc., "Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War" documents the role of Western intelligence agencies in providing aid to armed separatists and reveals how Western governments supported different sides in an ethnic conflict, while portraying themselves as peacemakers. Most compelling are the candid statements of the decision-makers themselves, including former EC Mediator Lord Peter Carrington, former US Secretaries of State James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger, as well as Germany's former foreign minister, Hans Dietrich Genscher. "What the international community -- the Europeans, the Americans and the UN -- did, made it sure there was going to be conflict," states Lord Peter Carrington, the EC mediator, who, along with UN envoy Cyrus Vance, warned against diplomatic recognition of separatist states such as Croatia and Bosnia, before a political settlement could be achieved. "US intelligence agencies were unanimous in saying that if we recognize Bosnia it will blow up," says former State Department official George Kenney. Yet, according to former acting US Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, domestic political considerations -- the 1992 election campaign between William Clinton and George Bush -- led to the tragic decision to recognize Bosnia without a political settlement between the Muslims, Serbs and Croats. The film makes a powerful argument that the US drew the wrong lesson from the Bosnian conflict to justify intervention in the civil war that simmered in Kosovo. The manipulation of news coverage by the warring sides is explored in compelling footage and in interviews with veteran journalists such as David Binder of the New York Times and John MacArthur, columnist and publisher of Harper's Magazine, as well as authors Susan Woodward and Ted Galen Carpenter. The documentary offers powerful evidence of US involvement in "Operation Storm", the Croatian army's violent expulsion of the ethnic Serbian minority in 1995 -- an action which offered an eerie parallel with the expulsion of Albanian refugees in Kosovo by Serbian forces following NATO intervention on the side of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Compelling, candid interviews from military officers including UN Commanders Sir Michael Rose, Lewis MacKenzie and former Pentagon Chief of Staff General Colin Powell, elucidate how Western policymakers blundered by taking sides and by relying on military means to settle political problems.

Critics Reviews

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Bill Stamets Chicago Reader 06/23/2022
2/4
Yugoslavia, the Avoidable War never tries to exonerate the Serbs for their transgressions, but it does insist on a more complicated history than we’ve been given... Go to Full Review Jessica Winter Village Voice 04/15/2002
Claims to sort the bad guys from the good, which is its essential problem. Go to Full Review Stephen Holden New York Times 04/15/2002
4/5
Does an impressive job of relating the complicated history of the war and of filling in the background. Go to Full Review Joshua Tanzer Offoffoff 03/10/2003
0/4
Horrid little propaganda film with fascinating connections not only to the Serbs themselves but also to a network of American right-wing extremists. Go to Full Review Ken Fox TV Guide 04/15/2002
2.5/5
Veers uncomfortably close to pro-Serb propaganda. Go to Full Review Read all reviews
Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War

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Cast & Crew

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George Bogdanich

Director

Sanya Popovic

Narrator

George Bogdanich

Producer

Marko Nisevich

Producer

Martin Lettmayer

Producer

Predrag Bambic

Cinematographer

Movie Info

Synopsis The documentary, which took four years to produce, and which was updated following NATO intervention in Kosovo, investigates how serious errors and misjudgments made by Western powers, particularly Germany and the United States, helped spark the violent break-up of the former Yugoslavia in 1991 and continue to destabilize the region in the new millennium. Produced by Frontier Theatre and Film Inc., "Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War" documents the role of Western intelligence agencies in providing aid to armed separatists and reveals how Western governments supported different sides in an ethnic conflict, while portraying themselves as peacemakers. Most compelling are the candid statements of the decision-makers themselves, including former EC Mediator Lord Peter Carrington, former US Secretaries of State James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger, as well as Germany's former foreign minister, Hans Dietrich Genscher. "What the international community -- the Europeans, the Americans and the UN -- did, made it sure there was going to be conflict," states Lord Peter Carrington, the EC mediator, who, along with UN envoy Cyrus Vance, warned against diplomatic recognition of separatist states such as Croatia and Bosnia, before a political settlement could be achieved. "US intelligence agencies were unanimous in saying that if we recognize Bosnia it will blow up," says former State Department official George Kenney. Yet, according to former acting US Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, domestic political considerations -- the 1992 election campaign between William Clinton and George Bush -- led to the tragic decision to recognize Bosnia without a political settlement between the Muslims, Serbs and Croats. The film makes a powerful argument that the US drew the wrong lesson from the Bosnian conflict to justify intervention in the civil war that simmered in Kosovo. The manipulation of news coverage by the warring sides is explored in compelling footage and in interviews with veteran journalists such as David Binder of the New York Times and John MacArthur, columnist and publisher of Harper's Magazine, as well as authors Susan Woodward and Ted Galen Carpenter. The documentary offers powerful evidence of US involvement in "Operation Storm", the Croatian army's violent expulsion of the ethnic Serbian minority in 1995 -- an action which offered an eerie parallel with the expulsion of Albanian refugees in Kosovo by Serbian forces following NATO intervention on the side of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Compelling, candid interviews from military officers including UN Commanders Sir Michael Rose, Lewis MacKenzie and former Pentagon Chief of Staff General Colin Powell, elucidate how Western policymakers blundered by taking sides and by relying on military means to settle political problems.
Director
George Bogdanich
Producer
George Bogdanich, Marko Nisevich, Martin Lettmayer
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Runtime
2h 45m