Warren Zimmermann

In this special Comments section, the U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1992 has written a memoir drawn from his personal diaries that provides a gripping firsthand account of Yugoslavia's slide into civil war. The author evaluates the breakup of Yugoslavia as a classic example of nationalism from the top down -- a manipulated, brutal nationalism in a region where peace has historically prevailed and ethnically mixed marriages comprise a quarter of the population. In one of several vivid portraits of politicians, Zimmermann shows how Serb leader Slobodan Milosevi'c, who wanted only "a unity that Serbia could dominate," became the main wrecker of Yugoslavia.