UNEF - The Yugoslav Contingent. Yugoslav Army Contingent in the Sinai Peninsula 1956-1967

During the Cold War, Yugoslavia, lead by its undisputed ruler Marshal Josip Broz Tito, played a much more important part than its real size and power would suggest, mostly thanks to its unique position for much of the Cold War. Such a position was achieved after Tito’s break with Stalin in 1948, siding with the NATO Allies after 1951, and establishing firm ties with so-called Third World states, later known as the Non-Aligned Movement. Being a communist state but not behind the “Iron Curtain”, Tito’s Yugoslavia was sometimes portrayed in the West as a model and example for many developing countries and even more so as a crack in the monolith of the Communist world. With such a reputation, after the Suez Crisis in November 1956 Yugoslavia was welcomed to dispatch a formidable unit to the peacekeeping operation on the Sinai Peninsula. …