Quiet Vigil for a Falling Hero

In some ways, the post-Tito era has already begun

Some came and stood outside in the cold, staring anxiously up at the windows of the modern, nine-story clinic. Others gathered in groups during the lunch hour to exchange murmured bits of gossip that might supplement the meager medical bulletins. Each day last week, small crowds huddled in front of the medical center in Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital, where Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito continued to wage a formidable but apparently hopeless struggle for his life.

The vigil was one of the few perceptible signs of anxiety last week as Yugoslavs prepared for the inevitable. "I hope Tito will recover," said a high-ranking government official, "but we are aware that every man has to die." Television announcers were instructed to acquire appropriately dark suits. For three days, radio stations played only somber music, but then relaxed somewhat. Newspapers published the best-known utterances from Tito's 35-year rule, almost as though they were already posthumous.

After the amputation of his left leg on Jan. 20, to relieve a circulation blockage, the formidable 87-year-old patient at first appeared to be recovering strongly. Three weeks later, however, he suffered a severe relapse, with kidney failure and heart problems. Last week the terse bulletins issued by his team of eight Yugoslav doctors said his condition "continues to be grave," in spite of some response to "necessary measures of intensive treatment." Those measures included kidney dialysis. Then late in the week, he contracted pneumonia.

In some ways, the post-Tito era appeared to have already begun. The complex machinery of succession, based on a collective rather than one-man leadership, had automatically gone into effect following Tito's hospitalization. At the head of the nine-member committee-like State Presidency was current Vice President Lazar Kolisevski, 66, a mild-mannered Macedonian who would become the country's first interim President upon Tito's death. He would serve until May, when another committee member would take over. Tito's functions as party chief were carried out by the current chairman of the 24-member Presidium of the ruling Yugoslav League of Communists, Stevan Doronjski, 60, a colorless Tito loyalist from Vojvodina province. Both Kolisevski and Doronjski had traveled to Ljubljana two weeks ago to visit with Tito at his bedside; it was announced that they attended a special meeting of the State Presidency to discuss what were described as "organizational issues" and "issues of constitutional jurisdiction."

The new leadership was obviously intent on giving the lie to fearful Western prophecies that after Tito--by force or subterfuge--Yugoslavia might be yanked back into the Soviet orbit. Following a special session of the 28-member National Defense Council, military leaders spoke confidently of "a high degree of combat readiness in the country." Since mid-January, Defense Minister Nikola Ljubicic has kept the 259,000-strong armed forces on low-level alert and ordered the stand-ready notification of the country's 500,000 reservists.

Despite a recent tour of Eastern Europe by Marshal Viktor Kulikov, commander in chief of the Warsaw Pact forces, there were no indications of unusual Soviet troop movements. That seemed to reinforce the prevailing view among Western experts that an outright military invasion of post-Tito Yugoslavia is unlikely, especially as long as the Soviet army is otherwise occupied. Concluded a Western military analyst: "Moscow is still looking to Afghanistan, not Yugoslavia."

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