Editing Croatian Spring (section)

===Foreign policy considerations===
[[File:Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev - Flickr - The Central Intelligence Agency.jpg|left|thumb|[[Leonid Brezhnev]] offered [[Josip Broz Tito]] Soviet assistance in 1970.|alt=Photograph of Leonid Brezhnev seated at a desk, facing the camera]]
During a meeting of the SKJ leadership at the [[Brijuni Islands]] on 28–30 April 1971, Tito received a telephone call from [[List of leaders of the Soviet Union|Soviet leader]] [[Leonid Brezhnev]]. According to Tito, Brezhnev offered help to resolve the political crisis in Yugoslavia, and Tito declined. The offer was likened by the SKH and by Tito to Brezhnev's call to the First Secretary of the [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]] [[Alexander Dubček]] in 1968 ahead of the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]]—as being a threat of imminent Warsaw Pact invasion. Some members of the SKH Central Committee suggested that Tito invented it to strengthen his position, but the [[First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union]] [[Dmitry Polyansky]] confirmed the conversation took place.{{sfn|Batović|2017|pp=182–185}}

Aiming to improve the United States' position in the [[Mediterranean]] area following the [[Black September]] crisis in [[Jordan]], the [[President of the United States|United States President]] [[Richard Nixon]] toured several countries in the region.{{sfn|Batović|2017|pp=142–152}} Nixon's [[state visit]] to Yugoslavia lasted from 30 September until 2 October 1970 and included a trip to Zagreb, where Nixon sparked controversy in a toast at the [[Banski dvori]], the seat of the Croatian government.{{sfn|Jakovina|1999|pp=347–348}} His toast ended with the words "Long live Croatia! Long live Yugoslavia!", which were interpreted variously as a show of support for the [[independence of Croatia]], or alternatively as just a [[common courtesy]]. The Yugoslav ambassador to the United States interpreted the episode as strategic positioning for a breakup of Yugoslavia.{{sfn|Batović|2017|pp=151–152}}

Brezhnev visited Yugoslavia from 22 to 25 September 1971 amid continuing tension between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union following the 1968 invasion of [[Czechoslovakia]]. Brezhnev offered a friendship agreement, but Tito declined to sign it to avoid appearing to move closer to the [[Eastern Bloc]].{{sfn|Batović|2017|pp=195–198}} Yugoslav officials notified Nixon through [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[William P. Rogers]] that the meeting with Brezhnev did not go well. An official visit of Tito to the United States was arranged to reassure Tito of the United States' political, economic, and military support for Yugoslavia. Nixon and Tito met on 30 October in [[Washington, D.C.]]{{sfn|Batović|2017|pp=198–202}}