In the spring of 1999, the long-suffering rump state of Yugoslavia faced a new round of NATO aggression, with the alliance kicking off a massive bombing campaign of the country, citing alleged “war crimes” by Belgrade in the Serbian breakaway province of Kosovo. After shelling the country for 78 days, NATO sent in ground troops.
Russia, which had agreed to deploy peacekeeping units in Kosovo’s north to protect Serb civilians and defuse tensions, was incensed after NATO declared that Russian forces would be allowed one battalion in the American sector of responsibility.
Vowing to “act independently,” Russia transferred a contingent of paratroopers engaged in peacekeeping ops in Bosnia 600 km to take control of Pristina’s Slatina Airport, where they arrived on June 12. The operation was approved despite protests from some corners within the Yeltsin government, which expressed fears that it would worsen then-blooming relations with the US.
Infuriated by the move – which preempted NATO’s own plans to take the airport and dig in, NATO Forces in Europe C-in-C Wesley Clark ordered alliance forces to block the landing area, “overpower” and “destroy” Russian forces.
On June 13, British commander Mike Jackson, who had already flown to Pristina, met with Russian commanding general Viktor Zavarzin, shared a flask of whisky with him and offered Russian troops protection from a squad of British soldiers, including his son Mark, told Clark point blank: “I’m not going to start the Third World War for you.” Jackson’s deputy, Captain James Blunt, also refused.
Blunt later had a successful career as a pop singer, and spoke of the incident in interviews.
The unexpected decision by Jackson prompted Washington to change its tack and to pressure its newfound Eastern European allies Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria to block their airspace to Russian military reinforcement and resupply flights to Kosovo.
“We were [looking at] a possibility…of confrontation with the Russian contingent, which seemed to me probably not the right way to start off a relationship with Russians who were going to become part of my command,” Jackson said in later interview.
Jackson’s actions were likely guided to some extent by his affinity for Russia, which went back to the 1960s and his study of Russian language and literature at the University of Birmingham.
Despite the ensuing controversy, and grumbling in the US over the commander’s insubordination, which earned Jackson the nickname “Macho Jacko” in the tabloid press at home, he was not punished for his actions. Rather, he was appointed to C-in-C of Army Land Command, and after that to Chief of the General Staff, in an irony of fate - on the eve of the start of the 2003 Iraq War.