FROM THE YUGOSLAV PEOPLE’S ARMY TO THE ARMY OF YUGOSLAVIA. RETIREMENT OF THE GENERALS OF THE YUGOSLAV PEOPLE ‘S ARMY IN 1992.

Abstract

The article is about the forced retirement of the generals of the Yugoslav People’s Army that was carried out in February 25th and May 8th, 1992. With the disappearance of socialist Yugoslavia disappeared its army, the mythical symbol of the state. The process of the fall of the Yugoslav People’s Army continued all throughout 1991. The undefined war goals and the chaotic state in the command structures marked the last days of its history. There was also a war between the leadership of the Yugoslav People’s Army and Serbia that the public did not see. The Army’s leaders criticized Serbia for not being engaged enough in the mobilization, encouraging military desertion and defeatism, and initiating the fight of the Serbian people in Croatia, and then leaving them strained. The answer was that the leadership of the Army’s goals were too big to be accomplished and that Serbia did not want to risk its political position. The first act of the clash between Serbia and the generals of the Army began February 25th, 1992. On that day 31 generals were forced to retire. On 27th April, 1992, the Yugoslav People’s Army was formally dissolved, the remnants of which reformed into the military of the newly-founded Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The final blow to the generals of the Yugoslav People’s Army was executed on May 8th, 1992, when 38 generals had to retire against their will.