The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

Another factor at the beginning of the ‘60s was the Vietnam War, in
which the USA suffered heavy losses. Moreover, at their first meeting,
President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev inaugurated
the era of détente, which meant that Yugoslavia lost its significance
as a country “between the blocks”, and was left to its own
devices. The money needed for the growing economy now had to be
borrowed from foreign banks. With the economic reform initiated in
1965, a breakthrough was reached in the economic sphere. In addition
to economic decentralization achieved through the self-administration
of the enterprises, companies were also given greater freedom to use
foreign currency reserves in foreign trade. The market for foreign capital
was also opened, and the national currency devalued. That spelled the
end of the planned economy. However, a war of attrition began between
the “liberal” politicians, who wanted decentralization at the policy level
and the “unitarists”, who wanted to retain a strong central power.
As the number of unemployed grew rapidly, the borders, which, like
those in other socialist states, had previously been closed off by armed
guards with orders to shoot, were opened. With a Yugoslav passport,
one could now travel visa-free to more countries in the world than with
a West German one. Over one million people left the country and worked
abroad. Before their departure, they were sworn to remain proud pat -
riots, to engage in no political activities, and to avoid all contact with
post-war émigrés. In Yugoslavia, they were seen as foreign exchange
earners “employed temporarily abroad”; abroad, they were cheap labour
with “temporary residence permits”. Only later would they be courted,
when the new national leaders wanted their money for the “defence of
the homeland”, and briefly led them to believe that after the victory,
they would be able to assume important functions in the new national
states. Their savings in Yugoslav banks amounted to $7.5 billion by the
end of the ‘80s – before the war. Most of that – and most of what they
voluntarily paid into the accounts of the war leaders – was used for the
destruction of Yugoslavia, including the houses they themselves had
newly built back home.
However, the changed economic situation also brought the old, almost
forgotten differences in development back to the surface, and with them
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