November 21, 1995 · Diplomacy Theater
November 21, 1995
After 21 days of intensive negotiations at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, the presidents of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia initialed a peace agreement on November 21, 1995 that ended the Bosnian War. US envoy Richard Holbrooke had corralled the three leaders — Alija Izetbegović, Franjo Tuđman, and Slobodan Milošević — into a single air base and conducted a grueling proximity negotiation, shuttling between delegations in adjacent buildings. The resulting General Framework Agreement divided Bosnia into two entities: the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (Bosniak-Croat) and Republika Srpska (Serb), linked by weak central institutions. A NATO Implementation Force (IFOR) of 60,000 troops would enforce the agreement on the ground.
Commanders