Peace Plan Highlights | Photo Gallery | Strike Assessment | News Video Archive | Strike at a Glance | Who's Who | Roots of the Conflict | Story Archive | Links | Discussion

Milosevic "is not a man who is out of touch with reality ... he is a very shrewd political calculator, not burdened by principle," says psychiatrist Gerald Post, former political analyst for the CIA

(CNN) -- His presidential mansions were damaged by NATO airstrikes, his party headquarters had been destroyed, his country was in ruins and he had been indicted by a U.N. tribunal for war crimes.

To most it seemed that after two months of war, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was in a world of trouble. But those who knew him thought otherwise.

"He is stimulated by crises," an official who worked with Milosevic told the Washington Post. "When everything is normal, he can't come up with a strategy. He needs conflict. NATO played right into his hands."

"He's always creating a bigger crisis to cover up a smaller crisis," a Western diplomat told the Chicago Tribune. "That's how he thrives."

Vilified as "the slickest con man in the Balkans" and "a consummate politician and pathological liar" and defended as "charming" and "reasonable," Milosevic is one of the world's last dictators and one of its wiliest.

Indeed, on the day it was announced that a tribunal in The Hague had indicted him for alleged atrocities in Kosovo, state TV showed a smiling Milosevic condemning "aggression on our country" as he shook hands with Greek Premier Constantine Mitsotakis.

Mitsotakis later told Greek reporters that as far as he could tell, Milosevic wasn't fazed in the slightest by the indictment.

Observers say such sang-froid is customary with Milosevic. He is chilly and distant with associates, uncomfortable in crowds and has a history of suicide in his family.

The 58-year-old Milosevic was born in Pozarevac, an industrial city in central Serbia.

His father studied to be a Serbian Orthodox priest, according to The New York Times, but never finished his studies and taught Russian and Serbo-Croatian for a living. Eventually he left the family and returned to his native Montenegro, leaving Milosevic and his older brother, Borislav (now the ambassador to Russia), to be raised by their mother, a teacher and ardent communist.

Milosevic is said to have been overweight as a child and preferred writing poetry and being alone to sports and people.

While Milosevic was a student at the University of Belgrade, his father committed suicide. His mother did the same 11 years later and her brother, a former general, also took his own life.

Milosevic with his wife Mirjana Markovic

After graduating with a law degree in 1964, Milosevic joined the Communist Party, the traditional avenue to power in communist Yugoslavia. He moved up the career ladder as a business administrator, eventually assuming the leadership of the state-owned gas company before being appointed director of Beobanka, one of the major state-run banks.

He also married Mirjana Markovic, a professor of Marxist sociology at the University of Belgrade who was even more devout in her communist beliefs than Milosevic.

Markovic reportedly insulates Milosevic against criticism, takes a hard line against dissent and has been called "the Lady Macbeth of the Balkans."

Milosevic and his wife are said to be extremely devoted to each other and have two children -- daughter Marija, 34, who runs a radio and television station, and son, Marko, 25, a disco owner and auto-racing enthusiast.

Markovic was instrumental in helping Milosevic oust Ivan Stambolic from leadership of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. Stambolic had been Milosevic's friend for 25 years, and pulled Milosevic along with him as he climbed the organizational ladder. Later, Milosevic would also replace Stambolic as Serbia's president.

In Kosovo in 1987, an angry group of Serbs confront Milosevic, a little-known communist leader, claiming brutality by ethnic Albanian police

Milosevic's chance came in April 1987 when Stambolic sent him to pacify restive Serbs in Kosovo. The Serbians wanted curbs put on the autonomy enjoyed by the province, which was dominated by ethnic Albanians.

Milosevic broke away from a meeting with ethnic Albanians to mingle with an angry crowd of Serbians in a suburb of Pristina. The Serbs protested that they were being pushed back by police with batons, and Milosevic told them, "No one will dare to beat you again."

"Slobo! Slobo!" the crowd chanted.

It was a pivotal moment in the eventual dissolution of Yugoslavia, and in Milosevic's rise to power.

Milosevic is said to have arranged for TV cameras to be on hand that day, and footage of the incident was shown repeatedly on state TV.

Ethnic tensions began to resurface in Yugoslavia after the death of longtime Communist boss Marshal Tito

The incident not only heightened his profile as a Serbian nationalist, it also violated the "brotherhood and unity" dictum enforced by former Yugoslav leader Marshal Tito to prevent ethnic strife.

As the leader of Serbia's communist party, Milosevic demanded that the national government return control of Vojvodina and Kosovo -- both autonomous provinces -- to Serbia, and in 1988 he replaced party leaders in both provinces with his own supporters.

A year later, the Serbian assembly dumped Stambolic and replaced him with Milosevic.

"When somebody looks at your back for 25 years, it is understandable that he gets the desire to put a knife in it at some point," Stambolic said later. "Many people warned me, but I did not acknowledge it."

In 1990, changes were made to the Serbian constitution at Milosevic's behest that cut back on the provinces' autonomy. The result was an anti-Serb backlash in the other republics, and in 1991 Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence. Macedonia followed a year later.

When Muslims and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina also voted to secede, Milosevic lent his support to Serb militias trying to unite Bosnia and Croatia with Serbia in a "Greater Serbia."

Milosevic-sponsored Serbs fought Slovenians, Croats and Bosnian Muslims for three years in the early '90s

The fighting, which lasted three years, brought "ethnic cleansing" to the world's attention and established Milosevic as a key power broker in the region. His participation was considered essential to the Dayton Accords that ended the Bosnian conflict.

Eventually, however, Western diplomats concluded that Milosevic was, as British diplomat Dame Pauline Neville-Jones of England put it, "ruthless."

The proof lay in his pattern of supporting Serb groups and individuals such as Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic and then dumping them when expedience demanded it.

Gerald Post, a psychiatrist who profiled world leaders for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, told "NewsStand: CNN & TIME" that Milosevic "has no conscience ... (and) is driven by power ... and will do anything possible not only to survive, but to maximize his power."

Radmila Milentijevic, who has served in the Yugoslav government, feels Milosevic has been unfairly demonized.

"He's charming," she told "NewsStand." "He's winning as a person, in my experience, and he knows how to make you feel at ease."

News Highlights: Gallery: The conflict in review News story archive Yugoslavia's Future: What's next for Yugoslavia Map: Who controls what The Peace Settlement: A guide to the peace plan Map: Serb troop withdrawal The Military Campaign: Strike damage assessment Atlas: NATO and the Balkans Background: Timeline: Trouble in the Balkans A who's who of key players Map: Kosovo and its neighbors A history of the KLA

She adds that while he is clearly a politician, he is also "a reasonable man."

In 1996, Milosevic survived major opposition from a coalition of students and opposition leaders calling themselves "Zajedno" (Together). He stalled for three months, but eventually gave the opposition control of towns and cities that were often bankrupt and in disarray.

The coalition eventually came unstuck, the result of infighting, and Milosevic was left firmly in charge.

When the Serbian constitution prevented him from another term as president in 1997, Milosevic had himself named the president of Yugoslavia and invested what had been a ceremonial office with unlimited authority.

It was expected that the Serbs would lose in Kosovo, as they lost in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. And, as the Zajedno demonstrations indicated, there are many in Yugoslavia who have no love for Milosevic.

But there has been no indication that defeat in Kosovo could cost Milosevic his job. Indeed, if the past is any indication, another Serb loss would only strengthen him further.

"For most Serbs, Milosevic does not matter any more," a former associate told the Washington Post. "This is not about him. This is about the country."

And Milosevic has proven to be a master at manipulating nationalistic concerns to suit his own purposes.