Beacons in the Night: With the OSS and Tito's Partisans in Wartime Yugoslavia

Lindsay's memoir of his experiences as an American OSS officer with Tito's Partisans stands as a classic work of Resistance literature, but the book's overriding importance lies in its clarification of the ethnic/religious tensions that led to the present Balkan tragedy. Lindsay describes the two competing WW II resistance movements in Yugoslavia, both dedicated to engaging German forces needed elsewhere but with different postwar goals. Tito planned to turn the country into a Moscow-directed communist state; his rival, Chetnik leader Draza Mikhailovic, was determined to restore the monarchy and to continue the prewar dominance by the Serbs. On this basis, a civil war raged throughout the land even as the rivals fought against the German occupation. ``The ethnic hatred that fueled the communal violence,'' writes the author, ``seemed deeply embedded in the souls of the inhabitants.'' The book combines a rousing personal adventure story with new information on the Partisan contribution to the Allied war effort, and at the same time provides a useful lesson in Balkan history that is directly pertinent to the current bloodshed. Lindsay, retired chairman of the Itek Corporation, is an Associate of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard. Photos. (Sept.)