Vladimir Popović (diplomat)


Vladimir Popović Lukin, also known as Vlado Popović, was a Yugoslav diplomat, politician, general, revolutionary, close associate to Josip Broz Tito.

Biography

Born 1914 in Gornji Brceli, near Bar, Kingdom of Montenegro.
The Kingdom of Montenegro in 1918 was integrated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians. In 1929 it was proclaimed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. When World War II started
– the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded by Germany.
In 1945 at the end of World War II it was proclaimed the Federation of Yugoslavia consisting of 6 socialist republics.
1932 joined the Yugoslav Communist Party.
1934–1937 NKVD School in Leningrad vicinity under nickname Španac where he learned English, German, and Spanish language and diplomat protocols.
1937 graduated from the University of Belgrade's School of Medicine.
1937 represented his fellow students at the World Youth Congress in Paris where he met Josip Broz Tito, then Secretary of the Yugoslav Communist Party.
1937 he joined the Spanish Civil War, Rank of Captain in the Spanish Republican Army.
1941 after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the German and Italian Army, he became a leader of the Yugoslav partisans forces in Croatia.
1944 advanced to major general, commanded the Partisan Third Army Corps in Bosnia.
1941–1945 fought German, Italian, Bulgarian, Hungarian and local followers of Third Reich until 1945 when the battle was won.
1945 Josip Broz Tito sent VP to Bulgaria as the Yugoslav military and political representative.

1945 was named Yugoslavia’s first Communist Ambassador to Soviet Union.
1946 was a member of Yugoslav Delegation to the UN.
1946 member of Yugoslav Delegation at the Paris Peace conference in Versailles.
1946–1947 in Moscow he helped negotiate economic-cooperation agreements with the Soviet Union.
1948 Cominform denounced the Yugoslav Communist Party and the Soviet Union imposed an economic blockade on Yugoslavia.
1948 became First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and was elected to the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist party.
1949 as chief of the Yugoslav Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly he sought the aid of Western powers for his country.
1950 was named as Ambassador to the United States and pledged a policy of peaceful cooperation. He was influential in obtaining $38 million in food and supplies for his drought–stricken country.
1951 he helped obtain $50 million in economic aid from the United States, Britain and France, secured after the release of archbishop Aloysius Stepinac.
1954 Chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia.
1955–1958 he served as ambassador to China, USA and Vietnam.
1958–1972 He served as:
Married the former Vjera Radimir in 1946
Died 1972 in London, Great Britain.

Literature