Against the wishes of the State Department, new Democratic presidential front-runner Wesley Clark had a friendly meeting with Bosnian Serb commander and indicted war criminal Gen. Ratko Mladic in 1994, according to columnist Robert Novak.

A photo shows Clark and Mladic, regarded as the mastermind of the Srebrenica massacre of Muslim civilians, wearing each other's military caps. They also drank wine together, and Mladic gave Clark a bottle of brandy and a pistol at the Aug. 26, 1994, meeting, Novak said.

Serbian Gen. Ratko Mladic (second from left) next to Gen. Wesley Clark in 1994 in Bosnia

The Chicago Sun-Times columnist writes, "The important Democrats eager to run retired Gen. Wesley Clark for president might exercise due diligence about a military career that was nearly terminated before he got his fourth star and then came to a premature end."

The meeting took place when Clark was a three-star, lieutenant general directing strategic plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington. Novak notes Clark was warned by U.S. diplomats to not to go to Bosnian Serb military headquarters to meet Mladic, who still is at large and sought by NATO peacekeeping forces.

The State Department immediately went into damage-control mode and cabled European embassies to assure them of no change in U.S. policy toward the Bosnian Serbs. The U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, Victor Jackovich, lost his job, Novak said, even though he protested Clark's meeting.

Clark and Mladic, Aug. 26, 1994, in Bosnia

Months later, the columnist said, Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic handed Clark back his Army hat, after bitter negotiations with U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.

Clark's behavior apparently was such that Holbrooke's peace-seeking team instituted the "Clark Rule," requiring an American civilian official to rush to Clark's side whenever he was found talking alone to a Serb, Croat or Muslim.

Novak said it "produced some comic opera dashes by diplomats."

Clark's actions kept him off the promotion list to full general, but his appeal to Defense Secretary William Perry and Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs led to his fourth star.

He was named commander in chief of the Southern Command and later NATO supreme commander, leading the air war against the Serbs over their action in Kosovo.

But Clark became contentious, insisting on a ground-troops option and complaining about the slowly graduated bombing campaign, and he was pushed out abruptly by Defense Secretary William Cohen, Novak said, retiring in 2000.

A Newsweek poll released over the weekend shows Clark leading all Democratic presidential contenders with 14 percent of the vote among registered Democrats and those who lean toward the party.