After World War II, Yugoslavia emerged as a communist state independent of Soviet control (as compared to the rest of Eastern European Soviet satellite states). In the post west liberated Greece, however, the Greek Civil War raged on. Yugoslavia was aiding the pro-Communist ELAS forces, which was obviously considered an opponent to the interests of the West. In November of 1946 an American military aircraft which was flying from a base in Germany to Greece to fight the ELAS was downed over Yugoslavia. Six B-29’s from America deployed to Germany. These planes were the ones used to drop atomic weapons, and they were subsequently flown across a section of Yugoslavia, as an apparent threat to use atomic force if necessary. Yugoslav airspace was quickly (albeit unofficially) reopened to the U.S. airforce.

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