His political role in the last decade of the 20th century has been marked by divided opinions.
Tudjman's detractors accuse him of having been authoritarian and not very much tolerant towards political opponents.
They also criticise him for not having planned and conducted military and police operations very well, although the occupied Croatian areas were liberated while he was in power.
The most severe critics claim that his biggest mistake was an attempt to divide Bosnia-Herzegovina and establish the Republic of Herzeg-Bosna in areas which were controlled by Bosnian Croats during the war in that country. That, some of them believe, made Croatia an aggressor.
Responding to those accusations, Tudjman's supporters say that he led a policy aimed at protecting the interests of Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina and that the war period required a leader with an iron fist. They praise Tudjman for having formulated a political platform which mobilised Croats in the country and abroad, as well as for having defended the country against the Serb aggression and having established the independent and internationally recognised Croatia.
His supporters, however, find fault with him for having allowed some officials from the Communist regime to remain in office after he launched a platform for the reconciliation of Croatians.
Both his critics and his followers often describe the period while he was the Croatian President as the Tudjman era.
Tudjman came at the helm of Croatia in late May 1990, when he was elected president of the then Presidency at the first session of the multiparty national parliament. He became President of the Republic on 26 June that year.
He was re-elected head of state twice, at the first direct presidential elections in 1992 and in 1995.
Tudjman did not wrap up his second five-year term in office. He died on 10 December 1999.
Franjo Tudjman's political activity is inseparably connected with the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the party which he founded in 1989 and led until the end of his life.
Tudjman was born on 14 May 1922 in Veliko Trgovisce, northern Croatia. He was engaged in the anti-Fascist movement in the Second World War. In the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia he was convicted because of his positions on the Croatian national issue.