A son of a well-to-do farmers' family near Sinj, in 1941 he joined the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia and Josip Broz Tito's Partisans.

The new policy was opposed by more conservative elements of the party and Yugoslav People's Army and also created many ethnic tensions in parts of Croatia with large Serb minority.

That, and Croatian students making even more radical demands, finally led Tito to openly turn against Dabčević-Kučar and Tripalo at Karađorđevo Party conference in December 1971.

The other, more likely to exploit popular dissatisfaction with Communism and Yugoslavia, as well as fear of emerging Serb nationalism, was Croatian Democratic Union under Franjo Tuđman.

This became apparent after 1992 and Dabčević-Kučar's failure at parliamentary and presidential elections, events that coincided with the rise of hardline nationalist faction within HDZ.