He was asked by state radio to comment on Prime Minister Ivo Sanader's statement that he and Mesic had the same positions on Tudjman's role in the creation and defence of Croatia, the creation of the military and resistance to the aggressor.
That is true in the part referring to the proposal of a confederation to the then Yugoslav presidency to avoid war. When that did not pass, we agreed to go for independence, said Mesic.
Tudjman was Croatia's first president and this is how history will remember him, but Croatia would have been independent even if someone else had been president because he would have had to accept the choice of independence by the majority of the Croatian people, said Mesic.
We disagreed about the policy towards Bosnia and Herzegovina because only a naive person could think that the interests of the Croat people in the whole Bosnia and Herzegovina could be protected by establishing Herceg Bosna against Republika Srpska, said Mesic.
Asked if the Croatian government should provide guarantees for army general Ante Gotovina, accused by the Hague war crimes tribunal, to be released pending trial, Mesic said Gotovina would be in a much better position if he had surrendered to the UN court.
He added that in deciding on the request by Gotovina's defence team, "a big part will be played by the guarantees that Gotovina himself will give that he will be available to the Croatian authorities and the Hague tribunal".
Commenting on the quarrels between the defence teams of the Croatian generals accused by the Hague tribunal, Mesic said the quarrels damaged everyone and benefitted no one.
The president also spoke about the tribunal's indictments for crimes committed during 1995's Operation Storm and the publishing of an audio recording of the so-called Brijuni meeting, at which top state and military leaders decided to launch Storm.
"Croatia cannot be held accountable because several people were present as one (person) was suggesting that the operation should be carried out this or that way," he said.
Asked about Croatia's current defence status, Mesic said Croatia had carried out the necessary reform, had a mobile army that was well-armed, organised in accordance with NATO standards and capable of responding to any challenge despite the lack of state-of-the-art weapons or military equipment.
The president voiced confidence that NATO would not allow a war in this region. In the need arose, it would be much harder to defend the country without NATO's umbrella than with it, he said, adding that military experts had estimated that a defence system would cost Croatia up to three times more outside of NATO.
Regarding possible requests for the building of NATO bases in Croatia, Mesic said Croatia had not received a request to that effect and that if it did, parliament and the government would first have to voice their opinions, followed by the public at a referendum.