Milosevic by Adam LeBor Page B

understand the West, how it works, and the value placed on good faith, and honesty perhaps better than any other Balkan politician. He learnt to schmooze and glad-hand, skills that served him well when western leaders courted his support. Milosevic admired the American ‘can-do’ ethos, in stark contrast to the torpor that often characterised Balkan communism. Wall Street, Rockefellers, Eagleburgers, all this was heady stuff for the boy from Pozarevac. There was also here a hint of the inferiority complex that even now bedevils the region’s politicians. Leaders of small eastern European countries want nothing more than to be accepted as equals by the superpowers. In later years Milosevic always relished getting a telephone call from President Clinton, or a visit from the pugnacious American negotiator Richard Holbrooke, whose ‘cut the crap’ straightforward approach Milosevic found greatly appealing. In the banking world, he first found the respect he wanted.
    At this time Mihailo Crnobrnja was UBB’s chief economist. He became Milosevic’s guide to the United States. ‘He was fascinated by the efficiency, by the technical sophistication that he met every step of the way.’ The long hours at university spent dissecting the power structures of the Communist party gave Milosevic an analytical understanding of organisations and hierarchy that was also useful for capitalism. Blessed with a good memory, Milosevic always prepared thoroughly for meetings, and even spoke without notes. ‘When we met other bankers, Milosevic was sufficiently eloquent and knowledgeable to have them listen, not just out of courtesy, but with attention. I remember him as a man who did the job of a high-level banker well.’
    Milosevic wanted to see more of the United States. He and Crnobrnja hired a car for the weekend. They drove to Boston and also visitedHarvard, which Milosevic compared favourably with his own alma mater, Belgrade University. He joked that ‘Now when people ask me about my education, I can legitimately say I spent some time at Harvard!’
    Despite her own leftist leanings, Mira was immensely proud of her husband’s achievements ‘He was a brilliant banker. Although I don’t know much about banking, and I know nothing about finance, I saw that he looked like one of the future bankers of the world. He very quickly understood the ideas and skills of banking. He thought that to work in banking and the economic sector was to be at the top of one’s career. He communicated with the most important bankers in the world.’
    While it seems disingenuous to claim, as Mira does, that Milosevic never thought about a career in politics, there is an interesting ambiguity about Milosevic’s capitalist years. Many accounts of Milosevic’s career have portrayed him as single-mindedly dedicated to the pursuit of political power throughout his life. Certainly at school and during his university years he was a dogged apparatchik. But Milosevic’s workplaces after university are not classic stages on the path to power in a Communist state. In a one-party system the only way up the political ladder is through the party. This was the path taken by Milosevic’s contemporary, the Slovenian leader Milan Kucan. By 1978, when Milosevic took over UBB, Kucan was already president of the Slovene parliament. Kucan was steadily progressing on the long march through the institutions.
    Milosevic was not. Tehnogas was a prestigious company but it brought no real political base with it. And to move from Tehnogas to a bank – in what was still a Communist country – was a curious choice. ‘Where in socialism or communism, does a banker become head of state?’ said Mihail Crnobrnja. ‘It is unheard of. If you want to become head of the party, or head of state, you become a small political apparatchik, then a bigger and bigger one until you make it to the politburo.