The Federal Executive Council was the executive body of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) responsible for state affairs and for supervising the implementation of laws. It consisted of up to 15 members elected by the Federal Assembly for a four-year term and the presidents of executive councils of republics and provinces. The Federal Executive Council played an important role in the Government of the SFRY from its creation in 1953 until the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992.

Konstantin "Koča" Popović was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and communist volunteer in the Spanish Civil War, 1937–1939 and Divisional Commander of the First Proletarian Division of the Yugoslav Partisans. He is on occasion referred to as "the man who saved the Yugoslav Partisans", because it was he who anticipated the weakest point in the Axis lines on the Zelengora–Kalinovik axis, and devised the plan for breaking through it during the Battle of Sutjeska, thus saving Josip Broz Tito, his headquarters and the rest of the resistance movement. After the war, he served as the Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav People's Army, before moving to the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs and spent the final years of his political career as Vice President of Yugoslavia.