Gen.

Draza Mihailovic Admits Collaborating

with Nazis
The following newspaper article was published by Schenectady Gazette
on 15 June 1946, but the article was dated 14 June 1946 (newspaper page 1 and 7)

BELGRADE – Gen. Draza Mihailovic admitted wearily today under questioning by the
prosecution that he had collaborated personally with the enemy [Nazis] while commanding his
Chetnik troops in Yugoslavia.

Earlier he had testified that he had been promised United States support exclusively for his
movement by the head of the American mission to his Chetniks headquarters.

The bearded Chetnik leader, on trial before a Yugoslav military court on charges of both
collaboration and treason, was confronted with a handwritten letter in which he had said “the
Italians helped us well.” He admitted the letter was genuine. It instructed Chetnik units to
receive arms from the Italians.

“What do you call this?” demanded the prosecutor after reading the letter.

“Intrigue,” replied Mihailovich. [*definition of 'intrigue' = A secret or underhand scheme; a

plot.]

“Is that collaboration?” the prosecutor asked.

“Yes,” was the reply.

“Is that your collaboration?” the prosecutor pressed further.

“Yes,” Mihailovic answered.

Obviously tired from his continual appearance on the stand since Tuesday, Mihailovich had
testified also that he had told the British that he had enough of being a “fill-gap man in
Europe,” and that it was “up to us to tend towards the Soviet Union.”

He said the Yugoslav government in London had intervened with the admonition “look
westward” and he had accepted it.

Clad in U.S. army pants and shoes and a nondescript coat, he said he had been given a promise
of exclusive United States support by Col. Robert H. McDowell, head of the American mission
to Chetnik headquarters in 1944.
He said McDowell had assured him “when the Russians reach the frontier the Red army will
not enter Yugoslavia.” Asked whether McDowell had told him “the Russians are practical
politicians and would see the situation on the Terrain,” Mihailovic replied “yes he did.”

“Col. McDowell told me America would support me and my government and my movement
exclusively,” Mihailovich asserted.

He said that McDowell also told him that “American youth is not fighting for communism and
does not want communist in Yugoslavia,” and that “your struggle against the Germans does not
interest us. Your duty is to hold your people.”

Mihailovic estimated that his forces rescued between 300 and 400 American fliers in 1944
“during the time they were flying over Yugoslavia to Hungary and Romania.” He said that in
1944 “we got in contact with the air corps in Italy through my stations. We had direct contact.
Once 14 planes came in one day and took away fliers.”

The Soviet-style legal system now used in Yugoslavia provides for preliminary cross-
examination of the defendant on details of the indictment against him. The preliminary
questioning of Mihailovich which started Tuesday is expected to continue until the week’s end.