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Franjo Tuđman

Franjo Tuđman (14 May 1922 – 10 December 1999) was a Croatian politician and historian who became the first president of Croatia, from 1990 until his death. He served following the country's independence from Yugoslavia. Tuđman also was the ninth and last president of the Presidency of SR Croatia from May to July 1990.

Tuđman was born in Veliko Trgovišće. In his youth, he fought during World War II as a member of the Yugoslav Partisans. After the war, he took a post in the Ministry of Defence, later attaining the rank of major general of the Yugoslav Army in 1960. After his military career, he dedicated himself to the study of geopolitics. In 1963, he became a professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Political Sciences. He received a doctorate in history in 1965 and worked as a historian until coming into conflict with the regime. Tuđman participated in the Croatian Spring movement that called for reforms in the country and was imprisoned for his activities in 1972. He lived relatively anonymously in the following years until the end of communism, whereupon he began his political career by founding the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in 1989.

HDZ won the first Croatian parliamentary elections in 1990 and Tuđman became the President of the Presidency of SR Croatia. As president, Tuđman introduced a new constitution and pressed for the creation of an independent Croatia. On 19 May 1991, an independence referendum was held, which was approved by 93 percent of voters. Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991. Areas with a Serb majority revolted, backed by the Yugoslav Army, and Tuđman led Croatia during its War of Independence. A ceasefire was signed in 1992, but the war had spread into Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Croats fought in an alliance with Bosniaks. Their cooperation fell apart in late 1992 and Tuđman's government sided with Herzeg-Bosnia during the Croat-Bosniak War, a move that brought criticism from the international community. In a final verdict of war crimes trial of former high-ranking officials of Herceg-Bosnia, the ICTY stated that Tuđman shared in their joint criminal enterprise goal of establishing an entity to reunite the Croatian people which was to be implemented through the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims. However, it did not find him guilty of any specific crimes.

In March 1994, he signed the Washington Agreement with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović that re-allied Croats and Bosniaks. In August 1995, he authorized a major offensive known as Operation Storm which effectively ended the war in Croatia. In the same year, he was one of the signatories of the Dayton Agreement that put an end to the Bosnian War. He was re-elected president in 1992 and 1997 and remained in power until his death in 1999. While supporters point out his role in achieving Croatian independence, critics have described his presidency as authoritarian. Surveys after Tuđman's death have generally shown a high favorability rating among the Croatian public.

Early life and education
Franjo Tuđman was born on 14 May 1922 in Veliko Trgovišće, a village in the northern Croatian region of Hrvatsko Zagorje, at the time part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The family moved to the house marked as his birthplace soon after he was born. His father Stjepan ran a local tavern and was a politically active member of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS). He had been president of the HSS committee in Veliko Trgovišće for 16 years (1925–1941 and had been elected as mayor of Veliko Trgovišće in 1936 and 1938). Mato, Andraš and Juraj, brothers of Stjepan Tuđman, emigrated to the United States. Another brother, Valentin, also tried to emigrate, but a travelling accident prevented him and kept him in Veliko Trgovišće, where he worked as an (uneducated) veterinarian.

Besides Franjo, Stjepan Tuđman had an elder daughter Danica Ana (who died as a baby), Ivica (born in 1924) and Stjepan "Štefek" (born in 1926). When Franjo Tuđman was seven, his mother Justina (Gmaz) died while bearing her fifth child. Tuđman's mother was a devout Catholic, unlike his father and stepmother. His father, like Stjepan Radić, had anticlerical attitudes and young Franjo adopted his views. As a child, Franjo Tuđman served as an altar boy in the local parish. Tuđman attended elementary school in his native village from 15 September 1929 to 30 June 1933 and was an excellent student.

He attended secondary school for eight years, starting in the autumn 1935. The reasons for the interruption are not clear, but it is assumed that the primary cause was an economic crisis in that period. According to some sources, the local parish helped young Franjo to continue his education and his teacher even proposed him to be educated to become a priest. When he was 15, his father brought him to Zagreb, where he met Vladko Maček, the president of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS). At first young, Franjo liked the HSS, but later he turned towards communism. On 5 November 1940, he was arrested during student demonstrations celebrating the anniversary of the Soviet October Revolution.

World War II
On 10 April 1941, when Slavko Kvaternik proclaimed the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), the puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Tuđman left school and started publishing secret newspapers with his friend Vlado Stopar. He was recruited into the Yugoslav Partisans at the beginning of 1942 by Marko Belinić. His father also joined the Partisans and became a founder of the State Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH). According to Tuđman, his father was arrested by the Ustashas, the fascist and ultranationalist organization that governed the NDH, and one of his brothers was taken to a concentration camp. They both managed to survive, unlike the youngest brother Stjepan who was killed by the Gestapo fighting for the Partisans in 1943.

Tuđman was traveling between Zagreb and Zagorje using false documents which identified him as a member of the Croatian Home Guard. There, he was helping to activate a partisan division in Zagorje. On 11 May 1942, while carrying Belinić's letter, he was arrested by the Ustashas, but managed to escape from the police station.

Military career
Franjo Tuđman and Ankica Žumbar were married on 25 May 1945 at the Belgrade City Council. In this way, they wanted to confirm their faith in the Communist movement and the importance of civil rituals over religious ones. (In May 1945, the government created the law which allowed civil weddings, taking weddings, among other things, out of Church jurisdiction.) They returned to work that same day.

On 26 April 1946, his father Stjepan and stepmother were found dead. Tuđman never clarified the circumstances of their death. According to the police, his father Stjepan killed his wife and then himself. Other theories accuse Ustasha guerrillas (Crusaders) and members of the Yugoslav secret police (OZNA).

Franjo and Ankica did not qualify as secondary school graduates until after the war, in Belgrade. He graduated from the Partisan High School in 1945 and she finished five semesters of English language in the Yugoslav Foreign Office.

In 1953, Tuđman was promoted to the position of colonel and moved to position head of office of the Chief of staff of the Federal Secretary of People's Defence. On that position in 1959, he became a major general. At the age of 38, he had become the youngest general in the Yugoslav Army. His promotion was not extreme, but it was atypical for a Croat because senior officers were increasingly likely to be Serbs and Montenegrins. In 1962, Serbs and Montenegrins composed 70% of army generals.

On 23 May 1954, he became secretary of JSD Partizan Belgrade and, in May 1958, its president, becoming the first colonel to occupy that position (all previous holders were generals). He was placed in that position in order to solve administration problems inside of the club, especially the football section. When he arrived, JSD Partizan Belgrade was a kind of intelligence battlefield where leaders of UDBA and KOS struggled for influence. That caused clubs (despite having notable and good players) to have bad results, especially its football section. During his club presidency, the club adopted the black-white striped kit which is used to this day. According to Tuđman, he wanted to create a club that would have a pan-Yugoslav image and oppose SD Crvena Zvezda that had an exclusive Serbian image. Tuđman was inspired by Juventus FC uniforms. However, Stjepan Bobek (former player of FK Partizan) claimed that uniform colors idea was, in fact, his, which he passed on to Tuđman.

Tuđman attended the military academy in Belgrade, like many officers who did not have formal military education. He graduated from the tactical school on 18 July 1957 as an excellent student. One of his teachers was Dušan Bilandžić, who would be a future advisor. Before he turned 40 years old, he had risen to become the youngest general in the Yugoslav Army. He was prominent in attending to communist indoctrination while based in Belgrade, where his three children were born.

Institute
In 1963, he became professor at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Political Sciences where he taught a course called "Socialist Revolution and Contemporary National History". He left active army service in 1961 at his own request and began working at the Institut za historiju radničkoga pokreta Hrvatske (Institute for the History of Workers' Movement of Croatia), and remained its director until 1967.

Tuđman's increasing insistence on a Croatian interpretation of history turned many professors from University of Zagreb like Mirjana Gross and Ljubo Boban against him. In April 1964, Boban denounced Tuđman as a nationalist. During Tuđman's leadership the Institute became a source of alternative interpretations of Yugoslav history which caused his conflict with official Yugoslav historiography. He did not have an appropriate academic degree to qualify him as a historian. He began to realize that he would need to obtain a doctorate in order to keep his position. His dissertation was entitled The Causes of the Crisis of the Yugoslav Monarchy from Unification in 1918 until Its Breakdown in 1941, and was a compilation of some of his previously published works. The University of Zagreb's Faculty of Philosophy rejected his dissertation, on the grounds that some parts of it had already been published. The Faculty of Arts in Zadar (then part of University of Zagreb, today University of Zadar) accepted it and he graduated on 28 December 1965.

In his thesis, he stated that the primary cause of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia's breakdown was the repressive and corrupted regime which was at odds with the contemporary mainstream Yugoslav historiography which considered Croatian nationalism to be its primary cause. Bogdanov and Milutinović (both ethnic Serbs) did not object to this. However, the Zagreb-based publisher Naprijed cancelled the contract following his refusal to change some controversial statements in the book. He publicly supported the goals of the Declaration on the Name and Status of the Croatian Literary Language. The Croatian Parliament and League of Communists of Croatia from Zagreb, however, attacked it and the board of the institute requested Tuđman's resignation.

In December 1966, Ljubo Boban accused Tuđman of plagiarism, stating that Tuđman had compiled four-fifths of his doctoral thesis, The Creation of the Socialist Yugoslavia, from Boban's work. Boban offered conclusive proofs to his claim from articles published previously in the magazine Forum and the rest from Boban's own thesis. Tuđman was then expelled from the Institute and forced to retire in 1967.

Between 1962 and 1967, he was the president of the Main Committee for International Relations of the Croatian League of Communists Main Board and deputy in the Croatian Parliament between 1965 and 1969.

Dissident politics
Apart from his book on guerrilla warfare, Tuđman wrote a series of articles criticizing the Yugoslav Socialist establishment. His most important book from that period was Velike ideje i mali narodi ("Great ideas and small nations"), a monograph on political history that brought him into conflict with the central dogmas of the Yugoslav Communist elite with regard to the interconnectedness of the national and social elements in the Yugoslav revolutionary war (during World War II).

In 1970, he became a member of the Croatian Writers' Society. In 1972 he was sentenced to two years in prison for subversive activities during the Croatian Spring. According to Tuđman's own testimony, the Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito personally intervened to recommend the court to be lenient in his case, sparing him a longer prison sentence. The authorities of SR Croatia additionally intended to prosecute Tuđman on charges of espionage, which carried a sentence of 15–20 years in prison with hard labour, but the charge was commuted by Tito. Other sources mention that Miroslav Krleža, a writer, lobbied on Tuđman's behalf. According to Tuđman, he and Tito were close friends. However, Tuđman later described Tito's crackdown as an "autocratic coup d'état".

The Croatian Spring was a national movement set in motion by Tito and the Croatian communist party chairman Vladimir Bakarić amid the climate of growing liberalism in the late 1960s. It was initially a tepid and ideologically controlled party liberalism, but it soon grew into a mass nationalist-based manifestation of dissatisfaction with the position of Croatia within Yugoslavia. As a result, the movement was suppressed by Tito, who used the military and the police to put a stop to what he saw as separatism and a threat to the party's influence. Bakarić quickly distanced himself from the Croatian communist leadership that he himself had helped to gain power earlier and sided with the Yugoslav president. However, Tito took the protesters' demands into consideration and in 1974 the new Yugoslav constitution granted the majority of the demands sought by the Croatian Spring. On other topics like Communism and one-party political monopoly Tuđman remained mostly within the framework of the communist ideology of the day. His sentence was eventually commuted by Tito's government and Tuđman was released after spending nine months in prison.

In 1977, he traveled to Sweden using a forged Swedish passport to meet members of the Croatian diaspora. His trip apparently went unnoticed by Yugoslav police. However, on that trip he gave an interview to Swedish TV about the position of Croats in Yugoslavia that was later broadcast. Upon returning to Yugoslavia, Tuđman was put on trial again in 1981 because of this interview, and was accused for having spread "enemy propaganda". On 20 February 1981 he was found guilty and sentenced to three years of prison and 5 years in house arrest. However, he served only eleven months of the sentence. In June 1987, he became a member of the Croatian PEN centre. On 6 June 1987, he travelled to Canada with his wife to meet Croatian Canadians. They were trying not to discuss sensitive issues with emigrants abroad fearing that some might be agents of the Yugoslav secret police UDBA, which was a common practice at the time.

During his trips to Canada he met many Croatian emigrants who were natives of Herzegovina or were of Herzegovinian ancestry. Some of these later became Croatian government officials after the country's independence, the most prominent of whom was Gojko Šušak, whose father and elder brother had been members of the Ustaše. These meetings abroad in the late 1980s later gave rise to many conspiracy theories. According to these rumours the Croats of Herzegovina had somehow used the meetings to earn a huge amount of influence inside the HDZ, as well as the post-independence Croatian establishment.

Formation of the national programme
In the latter part of the 1980s, when Yugoslavia was nearing its demise, torn by conflicting national aspirations, Tuđman formulated a Croatian national programme that can be summarized in the following way:
 * The primary goal is the establishment of the Croatian nation-state; therefore all ideological disputes from the past should be thrown away. In practice, this meant strong support from the anti-Communist Croatian diaspora, especially financial.
 * Even though Tuđman's final goal was an independent Croatia, he was well aware of the realities of internal and foreign policy. His chief initial proposal was not a fully independent Croatia, but a confederate Yugoslavia with growing decentralization and democratization.
 * Tuđman envisaged Croatia's future as a welfare capitalist state that will inevitably move towards central Europe and away from the Balkans.
 * With regard to the burning issues of national conflicts, his vision was the following (at least initially): he asserted that Serbian nationalism, controlled by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), could wreak havoc on Croatian and Bosnian soil. The JNA, according to some estimates the fourth European military force in terms of firepower, was being rapidly Serbianized, both ideologically and ethnically, in less than four years. Tuđman's proposal was that Serbs in Croatia, who made up 12% of Croatia's population, should gain cultural freedom with elements of territorial autonomy.
 * As far as Bosnia and Herzegovina was concerned, Tuđman was more ambivalent: Tuđman did not take a separate Bosnia seriously as shown by his comments to a television crew "Bosnia was a creation of the Ottoman invasion ... Until then it was part of Croatia, or it was a kingdom of Bosnia, but a Catholic kingdom, linked to Croatia".

On 17 June 1989, Tuđman founded the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). Essentially, this was a nationalist Croatian movement that affirmed Croatian values based on Catholicism blended with historical and cultural traditions which had been generally suppressed in communist Yugoslavia. The aim was to gain national independence and to establish a Croatian nation-state.

1990 election campaign
Internal tensions that had broken up the Communist party of Yugoslavia prompted the governments of federal Republics to schedule free multiparty elections in spring 1990. These were the first free multi-party elections for the Croatian Parliament since 1913. The HDZ held its first convention on 24–25 February 1990, when Tuđman was elected its president. The election campaign took place from late March until 20 April 1990. Tuđman recruited several supporters from members of the diaspora who returned home, most importantly Gojko Šušak.

Tuđman based his campaign mostly on the national question. He stated that the dinar earned in Croatia should stay in Croatia, thus objecting to the subsidies for less developed parts of Yugoslavia, or for the Yugoslav army. He addressed the economic crisis, called for the renewal of a market economy and a parliamentary democracy, and expressed his support for the accession to the European Community. He maintained that Yugoslavia could survive only as a confederation. Although Tuđman had ties with the right-wing anti-Communist diaspora, he also had important colleagues from the Partisan Communist establishment, including Josip Boljkovac and Josip Manolić. His main opponent in the election was Ivica Račan from the League of Communists of Croatia (SKH), who became the SKH Chairman in December 1989.

Tuđman's talk of Croatia's past glories and independence was not received well among Croatian Serbs. The HDZ was heavily criticized by Serbian media, portraying their possible victory as a revival of NDH. Veljko Kadijević, general of the JNA, said at meeting of the army and SR Croatia leaderships that the elections will bring the Ustashe to power in Croatia. A few weeks before the elections, the army removed the weapons of the Territorial Defence from stores all over Croatia. During a HDZ campaign rally in Benkovac, an ethnically mixed town, a 62-year-old Serbian man, Boško Čubrilović, pulled out a gas pistol near the podium. Croatian media described the incident as an assassination attempt on Tuđman, but Čubrilović was in late 1990 charged and convicted only of threatening the security staff. The incident further worsened ethnic tensions.

During his campaign, on 16 April 1990 Tuđman had a conversation with news reporters where he said: "All sorts of other lies are being spread today, I do not know what else they will invent. I've heard that I'm of Jewish descent, but I found, I knew of my ancestors in Zagorje from around 350 years ago, and I said, maybe it would be good to have some of that, I guess I would be richer, I might not have become a Communist. Then, as if that's not enough, then they declare that my wife is Jewish or Serbian. Luckily for me, she never was either, although many wives are. And so on and so forth spreading lies ..."

The part of the statement about his wife was later widely criticized, including by officials of the Wiesenthal Center. Croatian historian Ante Nazor cited claims by Tuđman's son, Miroslav and Stijepo Mijović Kočan about the statement being directed against the former Yugoslav communist system rather than against Jews or Serbs; instead about mixed marriages being used by Croats as a means to promotion in the system. On 19 April, at a rally in Zadar, Tuđman said: "Let them not deceive that we want a restoration of the fascist NDH, which was created and disappeared within the Second World War. We know that the Croatian people also fought during the war on the other side under partisan, Tito's flags because he promised to create a free Federal State of Croatia that would be equal to all other nations. Clearly, instead of a realization of these ideals we received communist hell."

The elections were scheduled for all 356 seats in the parliament. Tuđman's party triumphed and got an absolute majority of around 60% or 205 seats in the Croatian Parliament. Tuđman was elected to the position of President of Croatia on. After the victory of HDZ the nationalistic Serb Democratic Party (SDS) spread its influence quickly in places where Serbs formed a high percentage of the population. Since the split among communists in Yugoslavia along ethnic lines was already a fact at that time, it seemed inevitable that the conflicts would continue following the multi-party elections which brought to power new political establishments in Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while at the same time the same communist officials kept their posts in Serbia and Montenegro.

President of Croatia (1990–1999)
In the weeks following the election, the new government introduced the traditional Croatian flag and coat of arms, without Communist symbols. The term "Socialist" in the title of the republic was removed. Constitutional changes were proposed with a multitude of political, economic, and social changes. Tuđman offered the vice-presidency to Jovan Rašković, president of the SDS, but Rašković declined the offer and called the elected deputies from his party to boycott the parliament. Local Serb police in Knin began operating as an independent force, often not responding to orders from Zagreb. Many government employees, mostly in police where commanding positions were mainly held by Serbs and Communists, lost their jobs. This was based on a decision that the civil service ethnic structure should correspond to their percentage in the entire population.

On 25 July 1990, a Serbian Assembly was established in Srb, north of Knin. Jovan Rašković announced a referendum on "Serb sovereignty and autonomy" in Croatia in August 1990, which Tuđman labeled as illegal. A series of incidents followed in areas populated by ethnic Serbs, mostly around Knin, known as the Log Revolution. The revolt in Knin concentrated the Croatian government on the problem of the lack of weapons. The effects of the JNA's confiscation of the Territorial Defence supplies was partly undone by the new Defence Minister, Martin Špegelj, who bought weapons from Hungary. As it had no regular army, the government had focused on building up the police force. By January 1991 there were 18,500 policemen and by April 1991 around 39,000. On 22 December 1990, the Parliament of Croatia ratified the new constitution. The Serbs in Knin proclaimed the Serbian Autonomous Oblast of Krajina in municipalities of the regions of Northern Dalmatia and Lika.

In December 1990 Tuđman and Slovenian President Milan Kučan presented their proposal on the restructuring of Yugoslavia on confederal grounds. Tuđman believed that a confederation of sovereign republics could accelerate the Croatian accession to the European Community. The leaders of the Yugoslav republics held many meetings in early 1991 to resolve the growing crisis. On 25 March 1991, Tuđman and Slobodan Milošević met at Karađorđevo, a meeting which became controversial due to claims that the two presidents discussed the partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Serbia and Croatia. However, the claims came from persons that were not present at the meeting and there is no record of this meeting that proves an existence of such an agreement, while Milošević did not behave subsequently as if he had an agreement with Tuđman. On 12 July 1991, Tuđman met with Izetbegović and Milošević in Split.

War years
On 1 March the Pakrac clash occurred when local Serb police seized the town's police station and declared Pakrac a part of SAO Krajina. It was one of the first larger clashes between Croat forces and the rebel SAO Krajina, supported by the JNA. It ended without casualties and with the restoration of Croatian control. On 31 March a Croatian police convoy was ambushed at the Plitvice Lakes. Until the spring of 1991 Tuđman, together with the Slovenian leadership, was ready to accept a compromise solution of a confederation or alliance of sovereign states within Yugoslavia. After the Serbian leadership rejected their proposals and armed provocations became more frequent, Tuđman decided to realize the idea of a complete Croatian independence. On 25 April 1991, the Croatian Parliament decided to hold an independence referendum on 19 May. Croatian Serbs largely boycotted the referendum. The turnout was 83.56%, of which 93.24% or 2,845,521 voted in favour of the independence of Croatia. Both Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991. The Yugoslav side accused the two of secession. The federal government ordered the JNA to take control of border crossings in Slovenia, which led to the Ten-Day War in which the JNA was routed. The Ten-Day War ended with the signing of the Brioni Agreement, when a three-month moratorium was placed on the implementation of the decision.

The armed incidents of early 1991 escalated into an all-out war over the summer. Tuđman's first plan was to win support from the European Community, avoiding the direct confrontation with the JNA that had been proposed by Martin Špegelj, the Minister of Defence, since the beginning of the conflict. Tuđman rejected Špegelj's proposal as it would be damaging on Croatia's international position and there were doubts that the Croatian army was ready for such an action. The emerging Croatian Army had only four brigades in September 1991. As the war escalated, Tuđman formed the National Unity Government which brought in members of most of the minor parties in the Parliament, including Račan's Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Fierce fighting took place in Vukovar, where around 1,800 Croat fighters were blocking JNA's advance into Slavonia. Vukovar assumed enormous symbolic importance to both sides. Without it, Serbian territorial gains in eastern Slavonia were threatened. The unexpectedly fierce defence of the town against a much larger army inspired talk of a "Croatian Stalingrad". Increasing losses and complaints from the Croatian public for failing to hit back compelled Tuđman to act. He ordered the Croatian National Guard to surround JNA army bases, thus starting the Battle of the Barracks. Tuđman named Gojko Šušak the new Minister of Defence in September 1991.

In early October 1991, the JNA intensified its campaign in Croatia. On 5 October, Tuđman made a speech in which he called upon the whole population to mobilize and defend against "Greater Serbian imperialism" pursued by the Serb-led JNA, Serbian paramilitary formations, and rebel Serb forces. Two days later the Yugoslav Air Force bombed Banski Dvori, the seat of the Croatian Government in Zagreb, at the time when Tuđman had a meeting with Mesić and Marković, none of whom were injured in the attack. On 8 October the Croatian Parliament cut all remaining ties with Yugoslavia and declared independence. Tuđman asked the Kosovo leadership to open a second front there against the JNA and offered help in weapons. The leadership decided against armed conflict, but gave support to the independence of Croatia and called on ethnic Albanians to desert the Yugoslav army.

In November 1991 the Battle of Vukovar ended that left the city devastated. The JNA and Serbian irregulars seized control of about a quarter of Croatia's territory by the end of 1991. In December 1991, the SAO Krajina proclaimed itself the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK). Until the end of 1991 sixteen ceasefires were signed, none of which lasted longer than a day.

On 19 December 1991, Iceland and Germany recognized Croatia's sovereignty. Many observers believe Tuđman's good relationship with Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Germany's foreign minister at the time, had much to do with this decision. Hostilities in Croatia ended for a time in January 1992 when the Vance plan was signed. Tuđman hoped that the deployment of UN peacekeepers would consolidate Croatia's international borders, but the military situation in Croatia itself remained unsettled.

Bosnian War

As the war in Croatia reached a stalemate, the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina worsened. The JNA used its territory for offensives against Croatia, but avoided the Croat majority part of Herzegovina. Tuđman doubted that Bosnia and Herzegovina could survive the dissolution of Yugoslavia, but supported its integrity if it remained outside a Yugoslav federation and Serbian influence. The first Croat casualties in the country fell in October 1991 when the village of Ravno was attacked and destroyed by the JNA. Several days later Bosnian president Alija Izetbegović gave a televised proclamation of neutrality, stating that "this is not our war".

The Bosniak leadership initially showed willingness to remain in a rump Yugoslavia, but later changed their policy and opted for independence. The Croat leadership started organizing themselves in Croat-majority areas and on 18 November 1991 established the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia as an autonomous Croat territorial unit. At a meeting in December 1991 with the HDZ BiH leadership Tuđman discussed the possibility of joining Herzeg-Bosnia to Croatia as he thought that Bosnian representatives were working to remain in Yugoslavia. There he criticized HDZ BiH president Stjepan Kljujić for siding with Izetbegović. However, in February 1992 he encouraged Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina to support the upcoming Bosnian independence referendum. Izetbegović declared the country's independence on 6 April that was immediately recognised by Croatia. At the beginning of the Bosnian war a Croat-Bosniak alliance was formed, though it was often not harmonious. The Croatian government helped arm both Croat and Bosniak forces. On 21 July 1992, the Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation was signed by Tuđman and Izetbegović, establishing a military cooperation between the two armies. In September 1992 they signed two more agreements on cooperation and further negotiations regarding the internal organization of Bosnia and Herzegovina, though Izetbegović rejected a military pact. In January 1993 Tuđman said that Bosnia and Herzegovina can survive only as a confederal union of three nations.

Over time, the relations between Croats and Bosniaks worsened, resulting in the Croat–Bosniak War. The Bosniak side claimed that Tuđman wanted to partition Bosnia and Herzegovina, a view that was increasingly accepted by the international community. This made it difficult for Tuđman to protect Croatia's interests and support Herzeg-Bosnia. As the conflict escalated, Croatia's foreign policy reached a low point. Throughout 1993 several peace plans were proposed by the international community. Tuđman and the Herzeg-Bosnia leadership accepted all of them, including the Vance-Owen Plan in January 1993 and the Owen-Stoltenberg in July 1993. However, no lasting ceasefire was agreed. In early 1994 the United States became increasingly involved in resolving the wars. They were concerned with the way the Croat-Bosniak war helped the Serbs and put pressure on the two sides to sign a final truce. The war ended in March 1994 with the signing of the Washington Agreement. In June 1994 Tuđman visited Sarajevo to open the Croatian embassy there. He met with Alija Izetbegović and discussed the creation of the Croat-Muslim Federation and its possible confederation with Croatia.

Ceasefire in Croatia
Despite considerable difficulties, Croatian diplomacy managed to achieve recognition in the following months. Croatia was recognised by the European Community on 15 January 1992 and became a member of the United Nations on 22 May. In April 1992, Washington recognised Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina simultaneously. Since the new Clinton administration came to power it had lobbied consistently for a hard line against Milošević, a political position often largely attributed to the policies of then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In May 1992 Croatia established diplomatic relations with China. A year later Tuđman was the first president from the former Yugoslavia to visit China.

The war caused great destruction and indirect damage in tourism, transit traffic, investment, etc. President Tuđman estimated the cost of direct material damage at over $20 billion and that Croatia was spending $3 million daily on care for hundreds of thousands of refugees. When the ceasefire of January 1992 came into effect Croatia slowly recovered. As economic activity picked up steadily and negotiations with the leaders of RSK got nowhere, the Defence Minister, Gojko Šušak, started amassing weapons in preparation for a military solution.

Tuđman won the presidential elections in August 1992 in the first round with 57.8% of the vote. Simultaneously, the parliamentary elections were held that were also won by HDZ. During the campaign, Dobroslav Paraga, the extreme right-wing leader of the Croatian Party of Rights, accused Tuđman of betraying Croatian interests by not engaging in an all-out war with Serbian forces. Tuđman tried to marginalize his party due to their use of Ustaše symbols, that brought criticism in the foreign press towards Croatia. Paraga won only 5 seats in the parliament and 5,4% of the vote in the presidential election.

In January 1993 the Croatian Army launched Operation Maslenica and recaptured the vital Maslenica bridge linking Dalmatia with northern Croatia. Although the UN Security Council condemned the operation, there were no incurring sanctions. This victory enabled Tuđman to counter domestic accusations that he was weak in his dealings with RSK and the UN.

Despite clashes with the RSK forces, during 1993 and 1994 the overall condition of the economy improved substantially and unemployment was gradually falling. On 4 April 1993 Tuđman appointed Nikica Valentić as prime minister. The anti-inflationary stabilization steps in 1993 successfully lowered inflation. The Croatian dinar, that was introduced as a transitional currency, was replaced with the kuna in 1994. GDP growth reached 5.9% in 1994.

End of the war

In May 1995, the Croatian army launched Operation Flash, its third operation against RSK since the January 1992 ceasefire, and quickly recaptured western Slavonia. International diplomats drafted the Z-4 Plan, proposing the reintegration of the RSK into Croatia. RSK would keep its flag and have its own president, parliament, police and a separate currency. Although Tuđman was displeased with the proposal, RSK authorities rejected it outright.

On 22 July 1995, Tuđman and Izetbegović signed the Split Agreement, binding both sides to a "joint defence against Serb aggression". Tuđman soon put his words into action and initiated Operation Summer '95, carried out by joint forces of HV and HVO. These forces overran the towns of Glamoč and Bosansko Grahovo in western Bosnia, virtually isolating Knin from Republika Srpska and FR Yugoslavia.

At 5:00 a.m. on Friday, 4 August 1995, Tuđman publicly authorized the attack on RSK, codenamed Operation Storm. He called on the Serb army and their leadership in Knin to surrender, and at the same time called Serb civilians to remain in their homes, guaranteeing them their rights. The decision to head straight for Knin, the centre of RSK, paid off and by 10am on 5 August, on the second day of the operation, Croatian forces entered the city with minimal casualties. By the morning of 8 August the operation was effectively over, resulting in the restoration of Croatian control of 10,400 square kilometres (4,000 square miles) of territory. Around 150,000–200,000 Serbs fled and a variety of crimes were committed against the remaining civilians. United States President Bill Clinton said he was "hopeful that Croatia's offensive will turn out to be something that will give us an avenue to a quick diplomatic solution."

A joint offensive of Croatian and Bosniak forces followed in western and northern Bosnia. Bosnian Serb forces quickly lost territory and were forced to negotiate. Talks regarding a peace treaty were held in Dayton, Ohio. Tuđman insisted on solving the question of RSK-held eastern Slavonia and its peaceful return to Croatia at the Dayton peace talks. On 1 November he had a heated debate with Milošević, who denied control over the region's leadership. Tuđman was ready to hinder the Dayton agreement and continue the war if Slavonia was not peacefully reintegrated. The military situation gave him an upper hand and Milošević agreed on his request. The Dayton Agreement was drafted in November 1995. Tuđman was one of the signatories of it, along with the leaderships of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, that ended the Bosnian War. On 12 November the Erdut Agreement was signed with local Serb authorities regarding the return of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia to Croatia, with a two-year transitional period. This ended the war in Croatia. Official figures on wartime damage published in Croatia in 1996 specify 180,000 destroyed housing units, 25% of the Croatian economy destroyed, and US$27 billion of material damage. Regarding the exodus of some 150,000 Krajina Serbs from Croatia, Tudjman remarked that the refugees left so fast that they "didn't even have time to collect their dirty currency and their dirty underwear". He later boasted to his generals: "We have resolved the Serbian question... [t]here will never be 12 percent of Serbs" in Croatia. "If there are three or five per cent of them, that isn't a threat to the Croatian state".

Post-war policy

In 1995 parliamentary elections were held that resulted in a victory of HDZ with 75 out of 127 seats in the parliament. Tuđman named Zlatko Mateša the 6th prime minister, who formed the first peacetime government of independent Croatia. The elections were held in conjunction with local elections in Zagreb, which were won by the opposition parties. Tuđman refused to provide a formal confirmation to the proposed Mayor of Zagreb, which led to the Zagreb crisis. In 1996 a large demonstration was held in Zagreb in response to revoking broadcasting license to Radio 101, a radio station that was critical towards the ruling party.

Treatment of the media brought criticism from some international organizations. Notably, the Feral Tribune, a weekly Croatian political and satirical newspaper magazine, was subjected to several lawsuits and criminal charges from government officials as well as being forced to pay a tax usually reserved for pornographic magazines. Some opposition parties in Croatia advocated the view that, far from Europeanising Croatia, Tuđman was responsible for its "Balkanisation" and that during his presidency, he acted like a despot. Other parties, for instance the Croatian Party of Rights, argued that Tuđman was not radical enough in his defence of the Croatian state.

Croatia became a member of the Council of Europe on 6 November 1996. On 15 June 1997 Tuđman won the presidential elections with 61.4% of the votes, ahead of Zdravko Tomac and Vlado Gotovac, and was re-elected to a second five-year term. Marina Matulović-Dropulić became the Mayor of Zagreb having won the 1997 local elections, which formally ended the Zagreb crisis.

In January 1998 Eastern Slavonia was officially reintegrated into Croatia. In February 1998 Tuđman was re-elected as President of HDZ. The beginning of the year was marked by a large syndical protest in Zagreb, due to which the government adopted legislation regulating public gatherings and demonstrations in April. After the war, Tuđman controversially suggested that the remains of those killed during the Yugoslav death march of Nazi collaborators be brought and laid to rest at Jasenovac, an idea he later abandoned. This idea included burying Ustaša troops, anti-fascist Partisans and all civilians together and was inspired by General Francisco Franco's Valle de los Caídos. Previously he had appointed Ustache official Vinko Nikolic to the Croatian Parliament and his administration named multiple streets after Ustache politician Mile Budak.

In 1998 Tuđman claimed that his program of national reconciliation had prevented a civil war in Croatia during the collapse of Yugoslavia.

Economy
As a result of the macro-stabilization programs, the negative growth of GDP during the early 1990s stopped and turned into a positive trend. Post-war reconstruction activity provided another impetus to growth. Consumer spending and private sector investments, both of which were postponed during the war, contributed to improved economic conditions and growth in 1995–97. Real GDP growth in 1995 was 6.8%, in 1996 5.9% and in 1997 6.6%.

In 1995 a Ministry of Privatization was established with Ivan Penić as its first minister. Privatization in Croatia had barely begun when war broke out in 1991. Infrastructure sustained massive damage from the war, especially the revenue-rich tourism industry, and its transformation from a market socialist economy to a free-market economy was thus slow and unsteady. Public mistrust rose when many state-owned companies were sold to politically well-connected at below-market prices. The ruling party was criticised for transferring enterprises to a group of privileged owners connected to the party.

The method of privatization contributed to the increase of state ownership because the unsold shares were transferred to state funds. In 1999 the private sector share in GDP reached 60%, which was significantly lower than in other former socialist countries. The privatization of large government-owned companies was practically halted during the war and in the years immediately following the conclusion of peace. At the end of Tuđman's rule, roughly 70% of Croatia's major companies were still state-owned, including water, electricity, oil, transportation, telecommunications, and tourism.

Value-added tax was introduced in 1998 and the central government budget was in surplus that year. The consumer boom was disrupted when the economy went into recession at the end of 1998, as a result of the bank crisis when 14 banks went bankrupt, and GDP growth slowed down to 1.9%. The recession continued throughout 1999 when GDP fell by 0.9%. Unemployment increased from around 10% in 1996 and 1997 to 11.4% in 1998. By the end of 1999 it reached 13.6%. The country emerged from the recession in the 4th quarter of 1999. After several years of successful macroeconomic stabilization policies, low inflation and a stable currency, economists warned that the lack of fiscal changes and the expanding role of the state in economy caused the decline in the late 1990s and were preventing a sustainable economic growth.

Foreign policy
Mate Granić was the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1993 until the end of the Tuđman administration. In 1996 he signed an agreement on normalization of relations with FR Yugoslavia. On 9 September 1996 Croatia established diplomatic relations with FR Yugoslavia.

The US was the main mediator in reaching a peace treaty in the region and continued to have most influence after 1995. The Croatian offensives in 1995 did not receive unambiguous supports from the US, but they supported Croatian demands for territorial integrity. However, the Croatian-American relations after the war did not develop as Tuđman expected. Serb minority rights and cooperation with the ICTY were asserted as the main issues and they led to a deterioration of relations at the end of 1996 and during 1997. Tuđman tried to counter the pressure with closer relations with Russia and China. In November 1996 he received the Medal of Zhukov, awarded for contribution to the antifascist struggle, from Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

A confederation between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, adopted under the Washington Agreement, was not accomplished, while the Croat-Bosniak Federation acted only on paper. In August 1996 Tuđman and Izetbegović agreed to fully implement the Dayton agreement. Herzeg-Bosnia was to be formally abolished by the end of the month.

In 1999 the NATO intervention in Kosovo began. Tuđman expressed his concerns regarding the potential damage to Croatian economy and tourism, which was estimated at $1 billion. Still, the government expressed their support to NATO and granted permission to NATO planes to use Croatia's airspace. In May, Tuđman said that a possible solution is to deploy UN peacekeepers in Kosovo that would enable the return of Albanian refugees, while Yugoslav forces would retreat to Serb-majority northern Kosovo.

Relation to the Catholic Church
Živko Kustić, a Croatian Eastern Catholic priest and journalist for Jutarnji list, wrote that Tuđman's perception of the church's role in Croatia was contradictory to the goals of Pope John Paul II. Moreover, Kustić expressed doubt that Tuđman had ever been truly religious except when he was very young. Tuđman considered the Catholic religion to be important for the modern Croatian nation. When taking the oath in 1992 he added sentence "Tako mi Bog pomogao!" (So help me God) which was not then part of the official text. In 1997, he officially included the sentence in the oath. Tuđman's era was the era of the Catholic revival in Croatia. Church attendance rose; even former communists massively participated in church sacraments. The state was funding the building and renewal of churches and monasteries. Between 1996 and 1998 Croatia signed various treaties with the Holy See, by which the Catholic Church in Croatia was granted some financial rights, among others.

Health problems and death
Tuđman was diagnosed with cancer in 1993. His general health had deteriorated by the late 1990s. On 1 November 1999 he appeared in public for the last time. While being hospitalized opposition parties accused the ruling HDZ of hiding the fact that Tuđman was already dead and that the authorities were keeping his death secret in order to win more seats in the upcoming January 2000 general election. Tuđman's death was officially declared on 10 December 1999. He had a funeral Mass in Zagreb's Cathedral and was buried in Mirogoj Cemetery.

Vrhovnik
Tuđman was conferred by the Croatian Parliament the military rank of Supreme commander of Croatia, or 'Vrhovnik' on 22 March 1995. It was the highest honorific title in the Croatian Armed Forces and equivalent to Marshal. Tuđman was the only person to ever hold this rank. He held it until his death. The uniform for this position allegedly was modeled on the uniform of Josip Broz Tito as Tuđman was a dedicated Major General of the Yugoslav People's Army. The title was eventually abolished in 2002.

ICTY
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by the United Nations in 1993. Although the Croatian government passed a law on cooperation with the ICTY, since 1997 relations between ICTY and Croatia worsened. Tuđman criticized the work of ICTY in 1999, while ICTY's chief prosecutor Louise Arbour expressed her dissatisfaction with Croatia's cooperation with the Tribunal.

During Tuđman's life, neither Richard Goldstone nor Arbour, ICTY's first chief prosecutors, reportedly considered indicting him. In 2002 the new ICTY prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, said in an interview that she would have indicted Tuđman had he not died in 1999. Graham Blewitt, a senior Tribunal prosecutor, told the AFP wire service that "There would have been sufficient evidence to indict president Tuđman had he still been alive".

In 2000, British Channel 4 television broadcast a report about the tape recordings of Franjo Tuđman in which he allegedly spoke about the partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Serbs after the Dayton Agreement. They claimed that the then Croatian President Stjepan Mesić gave them access to 17,000 transcripts. Mesić, who succeeded Tuđman as president of Croatia, and his Office denied giving any transcripts to British journalists and called the report a "sensationalistic story that has nothing to do with the truth".

At the trial of Gotovina, in a first-degree verdict, the Trial Chamber found Tuđman to have been a key participant in a joint criminal enterprise, the purpose of which was to permanently remove the Serb civilian population from the territory of Republic of Serbian Krajina and repopulate it with Croats. In November 2012, an ICTY appeal court overturned the convictions of Mladen Markač and Ante Gotovina, acquitted the two former generals and concluded that there was no planned deportation of the Serbian minority and no joint criminal enterprise by the Croatian leadership.

In May 2013, the ICTY, in a first-instance verdict in the trial of Prlić et al., found that Tuđman, Bobetko and Šušak took part in the joint criminal enterprise against the non-Croat population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It ruled, by a majority, that the purpose of it was to de facto join Herzeg-Bosnia to Croatia. Judge Jean-Claude Antoanetti, the presiding judge in the trial, issued a separate opinion in which he contested the notion of a joint criminal enterprise and said that Tuđman's plans regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina were not in contradiction with the stance of the international community.

On 19 July 2016 the Appeals Chamber in the case announced that the "Trial Chamber made no explicit findings concerning [Tudjman's, Šušak's and Bobetko's] participation in the JCE and did not find [them] guilty of any crimes." On 29 November 2017, without attributing any crimes to Tuđman, the Appeals Chamber in the case upheld the convictions of six Herzeg-Bosnia and HVO leaders and concluded that he shared their joint criminal enterprise of "setting up a Croatian entity that reconstituted earlier borders and that facilitated the reunification of the Croatian people" which would be done through the ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims.

Tuđman as historian
Tuđman did not have a formal academic education as historian. He approached history as a Marxist scholar and Croatian attorney. He always regarded history as a means of forming society. His voluminous, more than 2,000 pages long, Hrvatska u monarhističkoj Jugoslaviji (Croatia in Monarchist Yugoslavia), has come to be assigned as reading material concerning this period of Croatian history at some Croatian universities. His shorter treatises on national question, Nacionalno pitanje u suvremenoj Europi (The National question in contemporary Europe) and Usudbene povijestice (History's fates) are still well-regarded essays on unresolved national and ethnic disputes, self-determination and creation of nation-states in the European milieu.

Horrors of War

In 1989 Tuđman published Bespuća povijesne zbiljnosti (Literal English translation:Wastelands of historical reality) which was published in English in 1996 as Horrors of War: Historical Reality and Philosophy. The book questioned the different claimed numbers of victims killed during World War II in Yugoslavia, particularly regarding the Jasenovac concentration camp, something Tuđman had previously done in an earlier work published in 1982. The Yugoslav government's estimates put the number of Jasenovac victims between 600,000 and 700,000 while some Serbian historians even suggested up to one million victims; both sets of numbers which were exaggerated. Tuđman felt that Jasenovac was being used to impose a collective guilt on Croats and to prove "the genocidal nature" of Croatian nationalism.

The last serious research of victim numbers before the Yugoslav wars was conducted by Croatian economist Vladimir Žerjavić and Serbian researcher Bogoljub Kočović. Both Žerjavić and Kočović arrived at a figure of 83,000 deaths in Jasenovac, each using different statistical methods. 59,589 victims (of all nationalities) were identified by name in a Yugoslav name list that was made in 1964. In his book Tuđman had estimated, relying on some earlier investigations, that the total number of victims in the Jasenovac camp (Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, Croats, and others) was somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000. He listed the victims as "Gypsies, Jews and Serbs, and even Croatians", reversing the conventional order of deaths to imply that more Gypsies and Jews were killed than Serbs. Tuđman emphasized that the camp was organised as a "work camp". He estimated that a total of 50,000 were killed in all Ustashe camps throughout the NDH. While he rightfully challenged the inflated numbers, he wound up downplaying Ustaše crimes by providing figures that were too low.

In Horrors of War, Tuđman asserted that 900,000 Jews perished in the Holocaust instead of six million. Aside from the war statistics issue, Tuđman's book contained views on the Jewish role in history that many readers found simplistic and profoundly biased. Some have described it as anti-semitic. Tuđman based his views on the Jewish condition on the memoirs of a Croatian former Communist Ante Ciliga, who described his experiences at Jasenovac during a year and a half of his incarceration. These are recorded in his book, Sam kroz Europu u ratu (1939–1945), paint an unfavorable picture of his Jewish inmates' behavior, emphasizing their alleged clannishness and ethnocentrism. Ciliga claimed Jews had held a privileged position in Jasenovac and actually, as Tuđman concludes, "held in their hands the inmates management of the camp up to 1944 [because] in its origins Pavelić's party was philo-Semitic". Tuđman added that most prisoners at Jasenovac perished at the hands of Jews, who controlled the liquidation process, and not the Ustaše. Ciliga theorized that the behavior of the Jews had been determined by the more-than-2000-year-old tradition of extreme ethnic egoism and unscrupulousness that he claims is expressed in the Old Testament.

Tuđman summarized, among other things, that "The Jews provoke envy and hatred but actually they are 'the unhappiest nation in the world', always victims of 'their own and others' ambitions', and whoever tries to show that they are themselves their own source of tragedy is ranked among the anti-Semites and the object of hatred by the Jews". In another part of the book, he expressed the belief that these traits weren't unique to the Jews; while criticizing what he alleges to be aggression and atrocities in the Middle East on the part of Israel, he claimed that they arose "from historical unreasonableness and narrowness in which Jewry certainly is no exception".

In 1994, Tuđman apologized for the remarks made about Jews, stating that in the years since the publication of the book his views on world Jewry had changed. The problematic passages were subsequently edited out in the English version published in 1996, but kept in the Croatian, French and German versions.

On 22 April 1998, Tuđman received the credentials of the first Israeli ambassador to Croatia, Natan Meron. In his speech Tuđman said, among other things: "During the Second World War, within the Quisling regime in Croatia, Holocaust crimes were also committed against members of the Jewish people. The Croatian public then, during WWII, and today, including the Croatian government and me personally, have condemned the crimes that the Ustaše committed not only against Jews but also against democratic Croats and even against members of other nations in the Independent State of Croatia."

Legacy

Tuđman is credited by his supporters with creating the basis for an independent Croatia, and helping the country move away from communism. He is sometimes given the title "father of the country" for his role in achieving the country's independence. His legacy is still strong in many parts of Croatia as well as in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatian majorities; there are schools, squares and streets in some cities named after him, and statues have been erected. In December 2006, a large square near Ilica Street in the Črnomerec section of Zagreb was named after him. In June 2015 Siniša Hajdaš Dončić, Minister of Maritime Affairs Transport and Infrastructure, said that the reconstructed and upgraded Zagreb International Airport will be named after Tuđman.

His tenure as president was criticized as authoritarian by some observers. Goldstein views Tudjman's post-war policies negatively, remarking that "between healthy nationalism and chauvinism, he chose chauvinism; between free-market economy and clientelism, he chose the latter. Instead of the cult of freedom, he chose the cult of the state. Between modernity and openness to the world, he chose traditionalism; a fatal choice for a small state like Croatia that needs to open for the sake of development".

Public opinion
Tuđman's approval ratings remained largely positive throughout his presidency and were generally evaluated higher than the rest of the government. They increased significantly following the admission of Croatia to membership in the United Nations in May 1992, the successful military operations in January 1993 and August 1995, and the peaceful reintegration of eastern Slavonia in January 1998. Polls showed a drop in support in the second half of 1993, throughout 1994 and in 1996. From early 1998 his approval gradually declined, before increasing slightly in November 1999.

In a December 2002 poll by HRT, 69% voters expressed a positive opinion about Tuđman.

In a June 2011 poll by Večernji list, 62% voters gave the most credit to Tuđman for the creation of independent Croatia. In December 2014, an Ipsos Puls survey on 600 people showed that 56% see him as a positive figure, 27% said he had both positive and negative aspects, while 14% regard him as a negative figure.

In a survey by promocija Plus in July 2015, regarding the renaming of Zagreb Airport after Tuđman, a majority of 65.5% showed support for the initiative, 25.8% were opposed to the idea, while 8.6% had no opinion about it.

Immediate family

 * Widow: Ankica Tuđman (1926–2022)
 * Sons: Miroslav Tuđman (1946–2021) and Stjepan Tuđman
 * Daughter: Nevenka Tuđman (born in 1951)

Croatian
Awarded by the Croatian Parliament in 1995:

title: Franjo Tuđman


text:
Canibus

Germaine Williams (born December 9, 1974), better known by his stage name Canibus, is a Jamaican-American rapper. He gained fame in the 1990s for his ability to freestyle, and released his debut album Can-I-Bus in 1998. Canibus has released 13 solo studio albums, as well as multiple collaboration albums and EPs with other rappers as a member of the Four Horsemen, Refugee Camp All-Stars, Sharpshooterz, Cloak N Dagga, the Undergods and one-half of T.H.E.M.

About.com placed him at number 32 on their list of the "Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007)", while in 2012 The Source placed him number 44 on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time.

Early life
Williams was born on December 9, 1974, in Kingston, Jamaica. He is of Jamaican descent. His father, Basil Williams, was a Jamaican and West Indian cricketer. The family moved frequently, living in The Bronx; Newark, New Jersey; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Miami; Buffalo; and London due to his mother's career requiring constant relocation. Canibus stated that he was an introverted child growing up.

After completing high school in 1992, he spent a year working for AT&T Corporation and another year as a data analyst for the U.S. Department of Justice. He studied computer science at DeKalb College in Atlanta.

Early career (1992–1996)
He began rhyming in the early 1990s and by 1992 under the name Canibus Sativa, and formed a duo called T.H.E.M. (The Heralds of Extreme Metaphors) with Atlanta rapper Webb (now called C.I., also known as Central Intelligence). In 1996, T.H.E.M. split and Canibus teamed with businessman Charles Suitt. That same year Charles Suitt introduced Canibus to platinum producer Frankie Cutlass and the two collaborated on a song. Canibus also appeared on the Music Makes Me High remix by the Lost Boyz featuring Tha Dogg Pound making it Canibus' first official appearance on a record.

In December 1997, Canibus first publicly discussed a verbal confrontation with LL Cool J in an interview with Tourè for The Village Voice. Also attending the interview was John Forté, DMX, Big Pun, Mos Def and Mic Geronimo. The roundtable discussion was recorded by Kurt Nice and featured in Shades of Hip Hop compilation Hot 2 Def in 1998 and re-released in 2004 on Shades of Hip Hop: The Cypher.

Debut album (1997–1998)
Canibus' debut album Can-I-Bus was released on September 8, 1998. The song "Second Round K.O.", produced by Wyclef Jean, was a success, with the video featuring Wyclef and a cameo appearance by boxer Mike Tyson.

The album contained a lot of socially-conscious material, such as corruption within the U.S. government, AIDS, and violence in modern America.

Canibus had a feud with LL Cool J over a verse that Canibus gave on LL's track "4,3,2,1" from his album Phenomenon. The track featured Canibus, Method Man, Redman, and DMX. Canibus's verse began with the line "Yo LL, is that a mic on your arm? Let me borrow that," referring to the microphone tattoo on LL Cool J's arm which LL Cool J interpreted as Canibus insulting him. When the final cut of the song came out it featured LL Cool J's verse after Canibus's, mocking an unspecified person believed to be Canibus.

Wyclef feud, second album (1999–2000)
Because Wyclef produced the majority of the tracks on Can-I-Bus, Williams blamed him for the general dissatisfaction with Can-I-Bus and cut ties with him, going as far as to diss Wyclef on the title track of his second album 2000 B.C. ("You mad at the last album? I apologize for it / Yo, I can't call it, motherfucking Wyclef spoiled it!").

2000 B.C. featured the first collaboration between Canibus and Kurupt, Ras Kass and Killah Priest, a rap supergroup collectively known as The Hrsmn (referring to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), on the track "Horsementality". Though following 2000 B.C.'s release it had been announced that the group would be releasing an album, these plans never materialized, with only an EP of outtakes from 2001 entitled The Horsemen Project released by Killah Priest's management in 2003. Since 2000, however, the members of the group have worked together on various songs and rumors of a full-length HRSMN album have persisted and include speculation about collaborations with Pharoahe Monch, Common and Rakim, among others.

Wyclef Jean would respond to Canibus's earlier remark on the track "However You Want It" from his album, The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book.

Though much bitterness between Canibus and Wyclef Jean remained for a period of time, the two artists finally settled their differences at the end of 2004; they have since worked together on two remixes of the Machel Montano song "Carnival Survivors". In an interview with HipHopsite.com conducted in November 2005, Williams claimed that he had recorded five songs with Wyclef and Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis at Platinum Studios in New York for an upcoming Fugees reunion album.

C True Hollywood Stories (2001)
In 2001, Canibus released his third album, C True Hollywood Stories. It was released on Archives Music, an independent label owned by Williams' future business partner, Louis Lombard III.

In an interview conducted in 2005, Williams' former promoter, Pak-Man, who worked on over half of the album with the rapper, spoke on the record, with his explanation leaning toward the album being intended as satire: "At that time Canibus was in the studio recording a lot of songs and [I] mean a lot, but he didn't want to make the fans wait no more so he did C True Hollywood Stories and he wanted to have fun wit, so thats what we did we had fun wit". In an interview on AllHipHop.com posted on April 8, 2005, Williams was asked what direction he was trying to take with that album; in his response, he stated "That album depicts the state of affairs in my life at the time – nothing more, nothing less".

Mic Club: The Curriculum and Rip the Jacker (2002–2003)
His fourth full-length album Mic Club: The Curriculum was released in 2002. Although the production was handled almost entirely by little-known producers, some of them from Europe, the record proved to be a greater critical success than the previous year's release. Mic Club also saw Canibus return to a more complex rapping style, with a number of concept tracks and few songs with a chorus. The album was released on Mic Club Music, Canibus' own label, but failed to chart, selling relatively few copies.

Following the release of Mic Club: The Curriculum, it was announced that Williams decided to join the United States Army. Before commencing his work with the military, however, he recorded a number of tracks which he intended to be released on his next album, entitled Rip the Jacker. Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind was given the task of producing the entire record, equipped solely with Canibus' pre-recorded vocals. Due to his military obligations, Canibus himself only managed to review the album after having acquired a copy.

Upon release, Rip the Jacker received rave reviews from the majority of critics, who noted that Williams' largely scientific lyrics and distinctive, rough delivery was finally matched by equally fine production, as Canibus had a history of working with badly selected producers. Unlike Mic Club, Rip the Jacker charted on both Billboard's R&B/hip-hop charts and the Billboard 200, peaking at #34 and #197.

Critics highlighted various aspects of Rip the Jacker's originality, both in terms of beats and lyrics; Stoupe had employed a large number of samples from often obscure compositions, while Canibus himself undertook a variety of topics from various perspectives. Of note was the inclusion of "Poet Laureate II", a song exceeding seven minutes in length and lacking a chorus, with several changes of beat throughout; the track was frequently singled out as one of the strongest in Canibus' career and the album as a whole convinced listeners and the industry alike that the rapper had not lost his potential.

Mind Control, Cloak n Dagga and Hip-Hop for Sale (2005–2006)
Following Rip the Jacker and Canibus' subsequent discharge from the army, an album entitled Mind Control (2005) was released to negative reviews. Canibus had never planned for it to be compiled as a separate record, but agreed to release it through the independent Gladiator Music label as part of a contractual agreement; most of the vocals for Mind Control had been recorded prior to the release of C True Hollywood Stories. A collection of previously recorded material (with only three of the songs being unreleased) produced entirely by Mark Sparks, the album failed to chart and is rarely considered an official Canibus release by the rapper's fans.

Also in 2005, a collaboration between Williams and underground rapper Phoenix Orion, who had also been known for scientific lyrics, yielded the album Def Con Zero, released on the independent Head Trauma Records label, owned by K-1 kickboxer Dewey Cooper. The record featured guest appearances from Kool G Rap, K-Solo, and former 106 & Park host Free, among others. As Cloak N Dagga, the duo briefly toured the United States promoting the release.

The following month, after numerous delays, Canibus' seventh solo album, Hip-Hop for Sale, was released, but was panned by critics, who dismissed it as yet another failed attempt to gain mainstream recognition. Additionally, due to the earlier release of Mind Control and the leaking of most of the material in the form of a mixtape entitled The Vitruvian Man, the release date had been pushed back to November, the original date having been May. The production on Hip-Hop for Sale was handled in part by Virginia-based producer Nottz, with several relatively unknown producers handling the remaining tracks after Nottz had cut ties with Canibus due to the appearance of The Vitruvian Man. The day of Hip-Hop for Sale's release, Mic Club Master Volume One, a separate mixtape, appeared in stores, many of the songs receiving more praise than those present on the full-length album.

For Whom the Beat Tolls (2007)
In January 2007, it was announced that Canibus would release new material in 2007 exclusively on his own imprint, Mic Club Music, in a joint venture with Legion Entertainment and distributed via his former major label, Universal Music Group. A pair of mixtapes, titled Nothing to Prove and Nothing to Lose, were slated for release in March 2007, but were eventually scrapped; instead, Canibus decided to use the best material from each mixtape to create a new full-length album entitled For Whom the Beat Tolls.

When the record was originally announced in March, there was only one confirmed track – the third installment in Canibus' "Poet Laureate" series, "Poet Laureate Infinity". The track has 1,000 bars, in the form of five 200 bar verses, and is layered in such a way that "when you mix it and spread it throughout five channels, [you have the ability] to mix the track differently every time".

"For Whom the Beat Tolls" was originally set for release in May 2007, but was pushed back one month, and a released on June 12, 2007 (though it was not distributed by Universal as previously reported). The album has 16 tracks and includes contributions from Killah Priest and Vinnie Paz, among others, and featured two personally made mixes of the "Poet Laureate Infinity" track ("Poet Laureate Infinity v003" and "Poet Laureate Infinity v004").

Following the release of "For Whom the Beat Tolls", Canibus went on a sporadic tour in the U.S. to promote the record. In August 2007, Canibus made an announcement on his Myspace page that he had cut ties with his business partner Louis Lombard: "To my friends, family and fans, Just wanted everybody to know I no longer do business with Louis Lombard, III & Mic Club Music.

Melatonin Magik (2010)
In December 2009, it was announced that Canibus was in the process of releasing his 9th studio album Melatonin Magik. Melatonin Magik was released on February 9, 2010, to relatively positive reviews, being regarded as one of his most focused efforts yet. The album included several guest appearances (DZK~PR~ & Warbux), a marked contrast to many of his previous albums in which he kept features at a minimum.

C of Tranquility (2010)
C of Tranquility was released on October 5, 2010. Producers include DJ Premier, Jake One, Scram Jones, Tha Bizness and J-Zone. Originally recorded in 2008, it was sent to Interdependent Media for track mastery and release. Many of the beats were changed, and a few of the tracks were shortened.

Lyrical Law (2011)
Originally intended to be a Melatonin Magik remix album, as more and more guests were invited to feature, Canibus decided to also record new material for the album, and it quickly evolved into an official solo album. In April 2011, it was announced that he would be selling the album through his new website, canibuscatalogue.com in order to have more control over promotion and sale.

A track entitled "Spring Training" was released by Joe Budden two days after "Lyrical Law VS Joey Cupcakes" containing lines directed towards Canibus. To many, the track appears to be a response. This is untrue however, as the track was recorded prior to having a conflict with Canibus. As of June 2011, an official response from either Royce or Budden (aside from brief messages on Twitter) has yet to surface.

Canibus vs Dizaster (2012)
Canibus completed his first rap battle for King of the Dot on June 9, 2012. Canibus participated in the first two rounds before pulling out a notepad to read his bars during the third round, after admitting defeat and wishing to recite what he said were "30 pages of rhymes" that he had failed to memorize. The battle was part of King of the Dot's Fresh Coast division in L.A.

A fake open letter, attributed to Canibus appeared on Tumblr,  though it was later debunked by his manager. Canibus later released an official statement on his Facebook page. About the battle itself, Canibus commented that "Sometimes people need laughter and entertainment at the expense of others embarrassment but hip hop means so much to me I don't care."

Army service
In 2002, Canibus signed up for the United States Army. In a 2005 interview, Canibus stated "I enlisted because I wanted to get away from the music... I wanted to do something that gave me a separate definition from what I had done all through my teens and twenties. I was 28 when I enlisted." In 2004, he was caught smoking cannabis and was subsequently discharged.

Albums
Solo
 * Can-I-Bus (1998)
 * 2000 B.C. (Before Can-I-Bus) (2000)
 * C! True Hollywood Stories (2001)
 * Mic Club: The Curriculum (2002)
 * Rip the Jacker (2003) (produced by Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind)
 * Mind Control (2005)
 * Hip-Hop for Sale (2005)
 * For Whom the Beat Tolls (2007)
 * Melatonin Magik (2010)
 * C of Tranquility (2010)
 * Lyrical Law (2011)
 * Fait Accompli (2014)
 * Time Flys, Life Dies... Phoenix Rise (2015) (produced by Bronze Nazareth)
 * Kaiju (2021) (produced by Body Bag Ben)
 * One Step Closer to Infinity (2022)

Collaborations
 * The Horsemen Project (2003) (with Killah Priest, Kurupt & Ras Kass, as The Four Horsemen)
 * Def Con Zero (2005) (with Phoenix Orion, as Cloak N Dagga)
 * In Gods We Trust – Crush Microphones to Dust (2011) (with Keith Murray, as The Undergods)
 * Scars n Stripes (2010) (with Matt Maddox;)
 * Lyrical Warfare (2011) (with Webb, as T.H.E.M.; recorded from 1993 to 1995)
 * The 2nd Coming (2013) (with Bronze Nazareth, Cappadonna, M-Eighty, Nino Grave & Planet Asia, as Almighty)
 * The Last Ride (2021) (with Killah Priest, Kurupt & Ras Kass, as HRSMN)
 * Microphone Land (2021) (with Jaximus)
 * Self Licking Ice Cream Cone (2023) (with Johnny Slash)

EPs

 * Canibus & Keith Murray Are The Undergods (2009) (with Keith Murray, as The Undergods)
 * Historic EP (2014) (with Killah Priest, Kurupt & Ras Kass, as HRSMN)
 * Full Spectrum Dominance (2018)
 * Full Spectrum Dominance 2 (2018)
 * Matrix Theory I (2018) (with Marty McKay)
 * Full Spectrum Dominance 3 (2019)
 * Matrix Theory II (2019) (with Marty McKay)
 * Full Spectrum Dominance: Repolarization (2019)
 * Matrix Theory III (2019) (with Marty McKay)
 * Matrix Theory IV (2020) (with Marty McKay)
 * Matrix Theory V (2021) (with Marty McKay)
 * C (2022) (with Pete Rock)

Filmography

 * Eyes on Hip Hop (1995) – self
 * Bamboozled (2000) – Mo Blak
 * Beef II (2004) – self
 * The MC: Why We Do It (2005) – self

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Canibus


text:
Talk:List of fictional characters within The Simpsons

Itchy and scratchy
Is there any other use of Itchy and Scratchy? Tokerboy

theme song
Just to check: the theme song lyrics are presumably fair use? The Anome

 * I would hope so. Two Halves

I've seen some conflicting reports about what the lyrics are. Most of the ones I've seen include "They fight, they bite" variations. Anyone know what the definitive source on this is? -- Wapcaplet

 * NPR's "Fresh Air", December 29, 2004 interview with Matt Groening: "They fight and bite and fight and fight and bite...."[]
 * There are all the variations to the Itchy and Scratchy Show theme at this site:
 * Linking there is probably an option if there is a great concern about fair use. --Two Halves

more itchy & scratchy
In the first paragraph, this article states:

 * continually attacking and mutilating each other with all sorts of deadly weapons.

Is this true? I'd rather say that Itchy is clearly the agressor most of the times...maybe always. But now I'm not sure? I think it should be checked -- Piolinfax 02:54 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * Scratchy occasionally attacks Itchy, but not usually...and only in self-defense :) Adam Bishop 02:59 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * I think there was one, which we didn't see due to something like Homer tripping over the TV's power cord, where Scratchy finally got payback. When he plugged it back in again, we saw Krusty saying something like "WOW! THEY'RE NEVER GONNA LET US SHOW SOMETHING LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN!"

Kang and Kodos
Do Hugo and Kang & Kodos really count as fictional characters within The Simpsons? Since they are from Halloween episodes, they seem to be outside the Simpsons universe, if anywhere. Tregoweth 03:21, Jul 9, 2004 (UTC)

 * Are we sure that they're only in the Halloween episodes? I have a vague feeling that that's not true.

 * Kang and Kodos have appeared in clip shows, but those are also outside of normal series continuity. Tregoweth 07:24, Jul 11, 2004 (UTC)

 * Other characters (such as Hugo) also only appear in Halloween episodes. Should we really include these? -Branddobbe 02:27, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

I think halloween-only characters (and malibu stacy) have no place here, this is for fictional -characters- that the simpsons know about and consider to be fictional. until kang and kodos get their own show or malibu stacy gets her own cartoon, i'd get rid of them.

 * A character is not an entity with its own show. Plus, I think it's appropriate here, especially given the header of the Article. Out-of-continuity characters are still in The Simpsons universe, since they're on the show The Simpsons. Consider the Treehouse of Horror episodes to be stories that are fictional to the Simpsons' characters themselves, and therefore fictional fictional characters Fitch 20:03, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

They're brother and sister, but which is which? RickK 10:02, Mar 10, 2005 (UTC)

Abortion for some, American flags for the others
shouldn't this quote: "Abortion for some, American flags for the others" be "Abortion for some, American flags for All!"?
 * I belive the actual quote is "Abortions for some, tiny American flags for others." Jack Cain 01:48, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Malibu Stacy
Doesn't Smithers have the largest collection of Malibu Stacy dolls in the world? RickK 10:02, Mar 10, 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes as revealed in Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy--220.238.88.213 02:51, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

I don't know where else to put this really, but I have seen no mention anywhere of Doctor Colossus. He was first seen in the above-mentioned episode when Stacy Lovell shows Lisa photos of her former lovers. He later made a speaking appearance in Who_Shot_Mr._Burns%3F. When Smithers is in police custody he talks about Mr Burns crossing the line from regular, everyday villainy to "fiendish super-villainy", upon which the camera zooms out to a wide shot and Colossus remarks from behind the bars of a nearby holding cell, "He was a rank amateur compared to the might of DOCTOR COLOSSUS!", before laughing maniacally and activating his "Colosso-boots" which propel him head-first into the ceiling. Later in the same episode, Sideshow Mel arrives at the station to tell the police that they have arrested an innocent man, referring to Smithers. Chief Wiggum misunderstands him and releases Colossus, telling him to "stay away from Death Mountain", which causes Colossus to pout and impotently protest, "Aw! All my stuff is there." Despite the brevity of his appearance, he is a memorable character and one of my personal favourite one-off characters in the series. Although his appearance and personality are very much those of a fictional super-villain, he is quite clearly a "real" person, so it is difficult to judge in to which category he should be put. Thoughts?--92.251.157.20 (talk) 17:41, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

Billy
There's a kid called Billy. He's in documentaries with Troy McClure, like the one with D.N.A. and there's another one where Lisa becomes a vegetarian. Should he be placed in Fictional characters within The Simpsons or List of recurring characters from The Simpsons or not be placed anywhere? He's definitely been in at least two episodes. APclark 10:48, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
 * I think he is as real as Troy McClure is.--220.238.88.213 02:51, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Duffman, Menthol Moose, The Seven Duffs? What about Bumblebee Man then?
220.238.88.213 02:48, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
 * I think Bumblebeeman should count.--Greasysteve13 04:02, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Old Gil
How about poor Old Gil?? ''Put in a good word for your buddy Gil.. the wolves are at Old Gil's door... oh boy, your whole life you work and you slave and scrimp and you steal just enough to get a sweet, sweet lick of that shiny brass ring. Where's Gil's lick, doesn't Old Gil get a lick?'' Dirk Diggler Jnr 12:07, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
 * (Old Gil is the white male in his 50s who appears as a very poor salesman, always apparently down on his luck and desperate to make a sale. This Simpson's character is based on Jack Lemmon's character in the film 'Glengarry Glen Ross')

 * You're looking at the wrong list. See List of recurring characters from The Simpsons]. Now, lets talk rust-proofing. The Coleco will rust up on you like that! Shut up, Gil, close the deal!.  smurray  in  chester (User), (Ho Ho Ho!) 18:10, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

God???
Why should God be listed as a fictional Simpsons character? He isn't A Simpsons character, and listing him as fictional may offend lots of Christians.--68.170.86.111 21:35, 13 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Not just Christians as you'll see in this article: "God"--Greasysteve13 04:01, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
 * From the article, "Homer states that God was his "absolute favorite science-fiction character"." Therefore in the Simpsons universe, God is a fictional character. --JimmyTheWig 10:27, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
 * But God did appear on one episode, when Homer thought the end times were comming, and he went to heaven. Also, just Homer said he is a Science fiction Character.  That doesn't make it necesarily true.--68.170.86.111 22:02, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I thought Bart said, "Woah, God is so in-your-face!" to which homer replied, "Yeah he's my favourite fictional character too"--Greasysteve13 06:45, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

One-time Characters
Are one-time characters or fictional characters that already appear in other cartoons regularly really necessary for this article? ☺ -- The pathetic AP  clark   Be nice not nasty  17:11, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I think this should be fictional characters from within the Simpsons universe... Duffman, Malibou Stacey, etc. should be here... Big bird, Oscar, et al. should be removed... also, if I remember the episode correctly, those characters were not named, but were rather Simpsons universe rip-offs... maybe one entry on this list for the whole lot of them as a 'Sesame Street rip-off show' on The Simpsons... - Adolphus79 04:35, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

McGarnigle
McGonigle Often incorrecly referred to as "McGarnagle", DVD subtitles show the characters name to be McGonigle.

---

Are DVD subtitles canon now? You'd have to be deaf to not hear the "R" sound in his name. Tromboneguy0186 02:34, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

And some people are deaf. So what's your point?Thedukeofno 11:19, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe his point is that deaf people are useless. ho ho! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.210.53.6 (talk) 06:46, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

The Region 4 DVD subtitle tracks spell it McGonickle. jurgen200

Characters from non-Simpsons sources
Shouldn't there be a distinction between fictional characters created by the Simpsons writers (Fallout Boy, Mr. Sparkle, etc.) and previously-existing characters created by others (Big Bird, Spongebob, etc.)? 71.111.59.22 15:40, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Why is Ozmodiar here?
--Greasysteve13 13:16, 11 November 2006 (UTC)
 * ...yes, one of those borderline characters who may or may not be "fictional" in the Simpsons universe -- my vote would be he's as real as The Great Gazoo is in the Flintstones universe.
 * On the same topic: I'm assuming the name is the writers' commentary on The Great Gazoo being all trippy and '60s and stuff, a play on the Ozmodium air freshener so often used to mask certain, ah, herbal odors, at least back in the day. However, I was surprised to find so few references to on the web.  Am I getting the name wrong?--NapoliRoma 21:45, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Peter Griffin and the South Park Kids
Should we put Peter and Stan, Kyle and Cartman in this? I mean they apperared in some episodes.(68.192.242.97 01:08, 5 December 2006 (UTC))

Once we start, where do we stop? What about all the PBS cartoon characters that appeared in Missionary Impossible? The page would go on forever. jurgen200 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.243.236.11 (talk) 04:46, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Hatmalibustacy.gif
Image:Hatmalibustacy.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 23:41, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Fallout boy
Wasn't there an episode where they were casting someone to play fallout boy in movies or promotions or something, and Bart or Milton or someone was chosen. Or maybe I dreamed that... 128.117.194.163 19:54, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

 * No, it wasn't a dream: Radioactive Man (The Simpsons episode). In the future, though, please do not use the article talk pages as a forum, use this only for improving the article. An excellent Simpsons forum can be found at Nohomers.net. Thank you. -- Will Mak  050389  19:26, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Happy Little Elves
Happy Little Elves redirects here, but there's no mention of it on the page. What happened to them?121.45.251.111 05:33, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

McBain
How does McBain "parody" the Terminator movies? I can't even think of one instance of the films being referenced by McBain. I reworded the McBain section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.243.236.11 (talk) 04:50, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

Sesame Street characters
Should Sesame Street characters i.e. Big Bird, Elmo, Oscar the Grouch be included in this list?

They do have a physical presence in the real world, albeit as puppets, whereas all the other characters in the list are truly fictional with no physical presence outside The Simpsons universe. Ozzieboy 10:24, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Fallout-boy.png
Image:Fallout-boy.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 07:30, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Death
Death is not a fictional character within The Simpsons. We should move him to the List of one-time characters or the List of recurring characters. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.81.91.27 (talk) 18:13, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Jack Bauer
I think Jack Bauer should be on this list. What do you think? RMFan1 (talk) 17:32, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

This list is no longer excepting characters from other media who make cameos in The Simpsons. The reason why they have been reomved is because they were using up article space and their roles are minor.Dr. Ralph Wiggum (talk) 21:27, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Amendment to be.jpg
Image:Amendment to be.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 19:14, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Bender image
There is no explaination why the image of Bender's first appearance in is here. It's completely out of context. Either the caption should be improved or the image should be removed -Verdatum (talk) 17:40, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

I totally agree. There is no reference in The Simpsons that Bender is even fictional. We just assume that he is fictional, because he is fictional character in the real world. So he even could be a real character in The Simpsons (although I don't agree with myself). He shouldn't even be mentioned at all in anypage. Maybe it should be mentioned on his page (futurama article) that he has appeared in The Simpsons... Tfmgames (talk) 04:26, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Fallout boy
Fallout Boy Already got its own, more detailed section in the Radioactive Man article, I suggest the part in this article be replaced with a link. 200.105.168.7 (talk) 01:48, 7 September 2008 (UTC)