As you point out in your briefing on the world after 1989, Yugoslavia was seen at the time as “a template of multi-ethnicity and pluralism, a halfway house between centrally-planned socialism and the harsh and distant world of western capitalism” (“Walls in the Mind,” November 7, 2009). Indeed. Sadly, it quickly turned dreadful, and a hundred-forty-thousand people perished in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. “For a decade,” you explain, “the outside world was unable to stop rampaging ethno-nationalist militias turning ancient grudges into bloody revenge.” The end of Yugoslavia was doubtless dreadful, but two stubborn misconceptions find their way into your explanation. First, the outside world had done too little, too late to stop the bloodshed. Once Yugoslavia had lost its appeal as an irksome wedge in the Soviet flank, it quickly lost the support of the west, as well. Second, the grudges that fed the rampaging militias were far from ancient; rather, they had their roots in World War II, when the internecine war was initiated and promoted by the occupying forces. The outside world was never too good to the peoples of erstwhile Yugoslavia, who were divided by competing empires for centuries.