On March 24, 1999, the U.S. led its European NATO allies in a 78-day bombing campaign targeting Serbia in order to destroy Yugoslavia, the last socialist country holding out in Europe. NATO planes bombed hospitals, factories, schools, trains, television stations, bridges and homes, killing thousands of Yugoslavs.

Although Germany, France, Britain, Italy and the U.S. had competitive interests in Yugoslavia, these imperialist powers joined to destroy the multinational state of more than 20 million people and break it into seven small and weak states that would become mini-colonies of the NATO powers.

In 1991 German imperialism, following its annexation of the German Democratic Republic, supported secessionist puppet regimes in Croatia and Slovenia. Germany also led NATO’s backing of one side of the war in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995.