Not so Clear: New Poll Shows Americans Forgetting NATO Bombings of Yugoslavia

The Alliance carried out its operation against Yugoslavia from 24 March to 10 June 1999 and it was the second military campaign of the NATO in Europe after the 1995 bombing of neighbouring Republika Srpska.

The poll conducted by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) among 1,001 US respondents in October 2019 shows what Americans think of one of the darkest pages in modern history.

The only question was "have you read or heard that in 1999 a coalition of NATO countries (the United States, France, Germany, etc.) conducted aerial bombing of Yugoslavia, a European country, for around 80 days?"

According to IFOP, 26 percent of the respondents said yes, 54 gave a negative answer, while 20 percent could not say it.

An unidentified Serb woman inspects debris of her home, destroyed in NATO air-strikes in the village of Vidrici, near Sokolac, some 50 kms northeast of Sarajevo Wednesday Aug 30 1995

© AP Photo / STR

NATO claimed that the of the operation was to hit military compounds, but the bombings destroyed 25,000 residential buildings, nearly 100 schools, 40 hospitals and a vast number of other civilian objects.