The Paradox of Nicolae Ceausescu’s Foreign Policy and Several Reasons for the Deterioration of the International Image of His Regime

Abstract

This short article attempts to find and highlight the most important reasons that determined the deterioration of the international imagine of the communist regime from Nicolae Ceausescu’s Romania. Although after 1968, - the year when the Romanian leader publicly condemned Czechoslovakia’s invasion by the Red Army- Romania’s image in the Western countries was very good, during the 80s the whole capital of sympathy completely disappeared. Nicolae Ceausescu’s anti-Soviet foreign policy made him a socalled “spoiled child” of the West. In 1989, the Romanian dictator remained the only Stalinist leader from European countries, paradoxically an anti-Soviet Stalinist leader. In our opinion there were three very important events that determined the irreversible degradation of the regime’s image abroad: Helsinki Final Act in 1975; General Ion Mihai Pacepa’s (vice-leader of Foreign Information Department of Romanian Intelligence) run to the USA and last but not the least, Mikhail Gorbachev’s election as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. (CPSU) We started from the hypothesis that these three moments were somehow decisive for Ceausescu’s decline in the eyes of his own people and mainly in international relations. From methodological point of view we tried to explain briefly how and in what measure the three mentioned events and their consequences changed maybe irreversibly the image of Romanian dictator mainly abroad. We tried also to make a short comparison between Ceausescu’s situation in 1968 and his position in the 1980’s. We could conclude that evolution of the events confirmed that one of the most important blows for Romanian dictator was Gorbachev’s election. However we do not need to overrate this aspect. The international and regional context at the end of 1980’s was decisive. The end of the Cold War and refolutions from Central and Eastern Europe made impossible the survival of the last Stalinist regime.