The Incredible Tito: Man of the Hour by Howard Fast Read Free Book Online Page A

part of Yugoslavia met. In a large hall that was formerly a gymnasium, peasant leaders and working class leaders, priests and Communists, old political leaders and young military men sat side by side. It was fitting that they should meet there, in one of the oldest and loveliest Yugoslav towns, under the picturesque castle of old King Tvtkas.
    The town had a festive air; this was free Yugoslav soil. Here was a school, a hospital, even a college hastily set up. Everywhere flags hung, most of them homemade, the American flag, the British, the Soviet flag, and the Partisan battle banner with its single five-pointed star.
    Here, on December 4th, 1943, Marshal Tito proclaimed a provisional democratic Yugoslav government, and disowned the government in exile. The Free Yugoslavia Radio told the world that 140 elected delegates had met in a parliament representative of free Yugoslavia. Dr. Ivan Ribar was announced as the head of this government, and General Joseph Broz (Tito) was elevated to the rank of Field Marshal and made chairman of a new committee for national defense.
    As might be expected, the Yugoslav Government in Exile screamed with rage, disowned Tito and the Liberation Front, and hysterically told the world that they were still the legal rulers of Yugoslavia. By this time, however, both Britain and the United States were too weary to listen. Tito and his men were killing Germans; the Partisans had driven the enemy from two-thirds of the land—and they had proved that the people of Yugoslavia supported them. Yet only a few days before this goes to press, the Yugoslav Government in Exile announced, with complete contempt for the truth, that Mikhailovich’s army numbered 250,000 men—waiting for an allied invasion to attack the Germans.
    Actually, Mikhailovich has ceased to be a factor in Yugoslavia—except for a certain nuisance value to the Germans. He harries the Partisans when he can; he is no longer strong enough to oppose them directly.

THE BATTLE CRY IS “LIBERTY”
    T ODAY, in Yugoslavia, the war goes on. The front stretches four hundred miles, from the German border in the north to Albania in the south. And along this front, 250,000 men of the Partisan Army battle the Germans. There, in Yugoslavia, are crack German divisions, some of the few remaining panzers, so sorely needed on the Russian front, assault troops, badly wanted in Italy, and seasoned Wermacht fighting men whom Adolf Hitler would dearly prize on the French coast. Here, in the grim mountains, in the deep forests, and on the wooded hills, the battle goes on—day and night.
    Here men fight for the dignity and the freedom of all people; here Communists and non-Communists stand shoulder to shoulder—enacting together one of the most glorious and courageous dramas the world has ever seen. And leading them is a man of such stature as the storied heroes of old—Tito.
    They will fight on until the battle is won, until a new and free and proud Yugoslavia stands again among the family of nations. And their battlecry echoes across the world:
    DEATH TO ALL FASCISTS!
LIBERTY TO THE PEOPLE!
    â€”THE END—

A BIOGRAPHY OF HOWARD FAST
    Howard Fast (1914-2003), one of the most prolific American writers of the twentieth century, was a bestselling author of more than eighty works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays. Fast's commitment to championing social justice in his writing was rivaled only by his deftness as a storyteller and his lively cinematic style.
    Born on November 11, 1914, in New York City, Fast was the son of two immigrants. His mother, Ida, came from a Jewish family in Britain, while his father, Barney, emigrated from the Ukraine, changing his last name to Fast on arrival at Ellis Island. Fast's mother passed away when he was only eight, and when his father lost steady work in the garment industry, Fast began to take odd jobs to help support the family. One such job was at the New York Public Library,