Ivan Laković and Dmitar Tasić, The Tito-Stalin Split and Yugoslavia's Military Opening toward the West, 1950–1954: In NATO's Backyard. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016. 285 pp. $95.00.

The relationship that developed in the early 1950s between Communist Yugoslavia and the United States and its democratic allies is one of the more fascinating episodes of the Cold War. The break between Josip Broz Tito and Iosif Stalin in 1948 had not been foreseen by Western governments, but it provided the United States with an opportunity to pry open the Soviet bloc and demonstrate that Soviet imperialism, not Communism in and of itself, was a danger to the free world. Tito was an unusual and often reluctant partner in this endeavor, retaining his commitment to socialist principles and, above all, to his country's survival. To secure the latter, he accepted U.S. military assistance and even appeared open to membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Over time, however, he forged a rapprochement with the USSR and soon became adept at balancing one power against the other. Rather than...