IV. PSYCHOLOGICAL INFORMATION
 
     The Jugoslavs ars predominantly an agricultural people.
 
They are sturdy, independent, close to the earth, illiterate,
 
opinionated, and intensely factional. They respect technical
 
skill and accomplishment in others but on the whole think that there is nothing that they can't do
 
at least as well as anybody else, given a fair chance. This last seems to be a basic and
 
universal characteristic, and I am not sure but that it would
 
be more accurate to say they think there is nothing they can't
 
do better than anybody else. This provides a striking contrast
 
with their actual present and pre-war situation, where, in point
 
of fact, there was practically nothing that they did as well as anybody else. Neither in the arts nor
 
in the sciences have they made any noteworthy mark and, in fact, their only known claim
 
to preeminence, up to the present, lies in their constituting
 
the most successful resistance movement in Europe, a circumstance
 
which may be attributed more properly to their indomitable will
 
and their not kinowing when they are licked rather than to a
 
special skill of any sort. I believe that to talk of their being
 
past masters in the art of guerilla warfare is to give an altogether misleading picture of what they
 
are really doing. Actually they hide out in the mountains and forests in what seemed to me to be a 
 
fairly crude and obvious way. They sneak out and fall upon the enemy whenever they think they 
 
can pull off a surprise,