Editing Franjo Tuđman (section)

==Dissident politics==
Apart from his book on guerrilla warfare, Tuđman wrote a series of articles criticizing the Yugoslav [[Socialism|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,{{citation needed|date=February 2014}} 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.<ref name="Istrapedia"/> According to Tuđman, he and Tito were close friends.<ref>Franjo Tuđman's {{YouTube|wDlSJixGzh4|statement on YouTube}}, ''...&nbsp;s kim sam i ja bio prijatelj, i koji me na kraju spasio od progona njegovog vlastitog komunističkog režima.''" (''"...&nbsp;[Tito] was a friend who in the end saved me from the persecution of his own communist regime"'')</ref> However, Tuđman later described Tito's crackdown as an "autocratic [[coup d'état]]".{{sfn|Sadkovich|2010|p=204}}
[[File:Franjo Tuđman 1971.jpg|thumb|right|Tuđman in June 1971]]

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 [[SFR Yugoslavia|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 [[1974 Yugoslav Constitution|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.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}

In 1977, he traveled to [[Sweden]] using a forged Swedish passport to meet members of the [[Croatian diaspora]].{{sfn|Sadkovich|2010|p=219}} 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.{{sfn|Sadkovich|2010|p=219}} 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.{{sfn|Sadkovich|2010|p=232}} However, he served only eleven months of the sentence.<ref name="moljac"/>{{better source needed|date=September 2024}} In June 1987, he became a member of the Croatian [[International PEN|PEN]] centre.<ref name="moljac"/>{{better source needed|date=September 2024}} On 6 June 1987, he travelled to Canada with his wife to meet [[Croatian Canadian]]s.{{sfn|Sadkovich|2010|p=248}} They were trying not to discuss sensitive issues with emigrants abroad fearing that some might be agents of the [[Directorate for State Security (Yugoslavia)|Yugoslav secret police]] (UDBA), which was a common practice at the time.{{sfn|Sadkovich|2010|p=250}}

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.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/05/world/gojko-susak-defense-minister-of-croatia-is-dead-at-53.html "The Communist Partisans led by Tito are said to have killed his father, an Ustashe officer, three months later and burned the Susak house to the ground. An elder brother was also an Ustashe officer."], nytimes.com, 5 May 1998; accessed 20 July 2015.</ref> 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.{{sfn|Sadkovich|2010|p=247}}