Content note: Wartime leaflet with a portrait of Slobodan Milosevic, the word 'pogrom' and a photograph of a burning building. This object is shown as it was published. Why
"Is it really his to gamble?" Serbian-language leaflet 04-B-02-L002, Operation Allied Force
Two-sided Serbian-language leaflet, shown front above back. The front pairs a portrait of Slobodan Milosevic with a paragraph listing places 'lost' under his policies (Krajina, eastern Slavonia, Baranja, Sarajevo) before saying he now gambles 'with his pogrom in Kosovo'; the back shows a burning building beside the question 'With what does he find it fit to gamble?' The tell is the selected list of losses attributed to one man, which lets the Serb reader blame him alone while the Serb people stay unnamed as culprits.
- Date
- 1999
- Period
- Contemporary
- Made by
- United States armed forces psychological operations (leaflet air-dropped during the NATO air campaign, Operation Allied Force); no issuer named on the leaflet
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Leaflet
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Clinton Administration
- Leader
- Bill Clinton
- Audience
- Mixed
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Event
- Kosovo War
- Techniques
- Card stacking
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (scans originally from psywarrior.com, 'Divide and Conquer PSYOP', SGM Herbert A. Friedman, ret.), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (US government work; Commons PD-USGov tag, issuer not printed on leaflet)
US armed forces psychological operations leaflet 04-B-02-L002, 1999. Scans via psywarrior.com and Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
[Front:] Слободан Милошевић се већ годинама коцка са будућношћу српског народа. Његовом политиком изгубљена је Крајина, источна Славонија, Барања и Сарајево. Он се сада поново коцка својим погромом на Косову. Он се клади са српском колевком, са српским местом у свету и са животима својих људи. Зар је то све његово, лично и сме да се прокоцка? [code at lower left:] 04-B-02-L002 [Back:] Са чиме то он нађе да се коцка?
[Front:] Slobodan Milosevic has for years been gambling with the future of the Serb people. Through his policy Krajina, eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Sarajevo were lost. Now he is again gambling with his pogrom in Kosovo. He is staking the Serb cradle, the Serb place in the world and the lives of his own people. Is all of that his, personally, and may he gamble it away? [Back:] With what does he find it fit to gamble?
Read from a 500 px scan; a few letters are small and soft (the code at lower left is read as 04-B-02-L002 from the Commons file name and Friedman's page). On the back, the word read as 'нађе' is the best reading of a soft letter. Translation by machine (Claude), not checked by a fluent reader; Friedman's English wording is 'Is it really his to gamble?'. The portrait photograph is unlabelled.
