THE DEFECTOR'S STORY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2010
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: December 1, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

CTA-r Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
vASHIN'GTONIAN
December 1985
THE DEFECTOR'S
SrORY
He Is the Highest-Ranking Intelligence Officer from a Soviet-Bloc
Country to Defect to the West. He Paints Rumanian President
Nicolae Ceausescu as Napoleonic in His Obsessions. His
Defection Led to Purges in His Homeland and to the Recall of
Rumania's Ambassador to the United States. He Suggests That
Everyone Is Corruptible. For the First Time, He Tells His Story.
BY ION MIHAI PACEPA
W1ten Ion Mihai Pacepa arrived at An-
drews Air Force Base on July 28, 1978,
aboard a US military aircraft that had
taken off in West Germany, he was de-
scribed by State Department spokesmen
and newspaper reports as a "high-rank-
ing aide " to Rumanian president Nico-
lae Ceausescu.
In fact, Pacepa, who quickly was
granted political asylum by the United
States, had been personal adviser to
Ceausescu and deputy director of the
Department of Foreign Intelligence-
called DIE from its Rumanian name,
Departamentul de Informatii Externe.
He is the highest-ranking Soviet-bloc in-
telligence officer ever to defect to the
West.
Within months of Pacepa's defection.
the Rumanian ambassadors to the Unit-
ed States and the United Nations were
replaced. In a November 19, 1978, re-
port on Rumania, Michael Dobbs of the
Washington Post wrote that the Pacepa
affair "has contributed to the most thor-
ough purge of ranking Communist parry
and government officials since Ceauses-
cu came to power thirteen years ago. "
Educated as an engineer at the Poly-
technical Institute in Bucharest, Pacepa
entered the Rumanian intelligence ser-
vice in 1951, when he was 23 years old.
By the time of his defection he had been a
frequent visitor to the United States.
Pacepa made advance arranwements
for President Ceausescu's official trips
to visit President Richard,Vixon in 1973,
Prestent Gerald Ford in 1975, and
President Jimmy Carter in 1978. He
then accompanied the Rumanian presi-
dent and his wife, Elena, on all three of
the White House visits. During these
state visits, Pacepa not on/v arranged
discussions with American Presidents
but even provided a food taster for the
security-obsessed Ceausescu. Pacepa
also arranged for special Rumanian in-
telligence teams to electronically sweep
Ceausescu's quarters in the US for lis-
tening devices, including rooms at Blair
House.
Pacepa, whose father worked in Ru-
mania for General Motors before World
War II, is now 57 years old and living
under a new identity in the US. His
daughter, Dana, an artist, remains in
Rumania with her husband and family.
Despite making repeated attempts, Pa-
cepa has had no contact with her since
he called her from West Germany in
1978, just before his defection. An
.,open letter" sent to her last year
through a Paris newspaper-and repeat-
ed time and again over Radio Free Eu-
rope-ended:
''There is a picture on my desk. I took
it on a sunny day, of you eating an apple.
Bite the apple again, my daughter, for
infinitely more sunny days. I love .ou
incredibly much, my Dana. "
Pacepa is at work on a book about liie
at the top in the Communist world and
about what he calls "the first Commu?
nist dynasty''-:Vicolae Ceausescu and
his family. These excerpts from the boot
manuscript represent the first time Pace-
pa has told his story for publication.
HEADS OF STATE
BLAIR HOUSE: THE LADY
WASNT IMPRESSED
Rumanian president .Vicolae Ceausescu
and his wife. Elena, arrived in Washing-
ton on April 11. 1978, for a state tiisu
with Jimmy Carter. Ceausescu has or
returned to the United States since.
The presidential Boeing 707 landed .it
Andrews Air Force Base at 6 PM. A few
minutes later Evan Dobelle, the US chief
of protocol, came on board the plane and
invited the Rumanian guests onto Amer-
ican soil. At the plane's steps, Nicoiac
Ceausescu and his wife. Elena. were
greeted by Secretary of State Cyrus
Vance and his wife, Grace, as well as by
other American and Rumanian repre-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
sentatives. From the airport the Ceau-
sescus rode in the same car with the
Vances. Half an hour later. the motor-
cade arrived at the official residence for
visitors, Blair House.
Blair House was already familiar to
me from Ceausescu's last two visits to
Washington, in 1973 and 1975. To alle-
viate Elena's traditional scene over not
yet having her luggage when she ar-
rived. I asked one of the people in charge
of the house to show her around.
"Blair House was built by Dr. Joseph
Lovell, America's first surgeon general,
154 years ago," the distinguished lady
said with professional competence.
"After his death, in
1836, the family sold
the house for $6,500 to
Mr. Blair, who had just
come to Washington as
the new editor of the
Globe...."
The tour began with
the first floor's Blair
drawing room and its
beautiful Queen Anne
desk and magnificent
Sully portrait of Mont-
gomery Blair, then it
continued to the Abra-
ham Lincoln Room.
It was in this room
full of memorabilia that
Mr. Lincoln signed the
Emancipation Procla-
mation," the guide
went on, pointing to a
pen-and-ink drawing of
President Lincoln.
"The Portrait of Gener-
al Robert E. Lee is a
reminder of the fact
that, in this same room.
Lee refused the com-
mand of the Union
Army, which was of-
fered to him by Lincoln
through Blair, who was
related to Lee by mar-
riage." The table in the
first-floor dining room was set with
heavy linen damask cloths for the private
dinner on this evening.
On the second floor Elena was shown
Ceausescu's large bedroom, adjoining a
spacious library, both decorated with
fresh flowers. That morning's Washing-
ton Post and New York rimes, as well as
the just-arrived evening newspaper, the
Washington Star, lay on a table in the
library.
This is your bedroom suite, mad-
4m." said the guide, pointing to a room
with a lovely, canopied four-poster bed.
Although it could not be refurbished in
time for the 1957 visit of Queen Eliza-
beth, it is still called the Queen's Suite to
this day," finished the guide, wishing
Elena an enjoyable stay.
"Close the door, Pacepa." Elena's
acid voice suddenly rasped out. After I
had executed the order, she exploded.
"Just look at the harpy. She has never
seen me before in her life, and she de-
cides I should sleep here, not with the
Comrade. Just so she can make up sto-
ries about the Comrade to tell other peo-
ple who stay here. "
Imitating the guide's voice, she went
on, " 'We have an Emancipation Procla-
mation.' It's a long way from that piece
of paper until these idiots will really be
emancipated." Then, suddenly chang-
ing the subject, she ordered me, "Tell
our press correspondents to include in
their articles that 'the Vances came to the
airport on behalf of the President of the
United States and Mrs. Rosalynn Car-
ter.' Idiots that they are, they may forget
that. "
FNENDL1 POOAS
Jean-Bedel Bokassa became leader of
the Central African Republic in a coup
staged December 31, 1965. On Decem-
ber 4, 1977, he crowned himself emper-
or of the impoverished nation in a lavish
ceremony. Ousted in a coup nearly two
years later and sentenced to death in
absentia for atrocities committed during
his reign, Bokassa lives now in France.
Before the infamous president of the
Central African Republic Jean-B6del
Bokassa made a visit to Rumania, the
DIE spent months on intensive intelli-
gence operations to study him. The most
important vulnerabilities found were his
insatiable desire for women and a primi-
tive impulse to collect jewels, money,
and personal bank accounts and safe-
deposit boxes in Switzerland. Several
days after Ceausescu
received a complete
study on Bokassa, he
took me for a walk in
the enormous garden
surrounding his person-
al residence.
"Central Africa has
huge diamond reserves.
which could spell a for-
tune for us. The prob-
lem is we cannot com-
pete with the expe-
rienced capitalist sharks
in obtaining conces-
sions for diamond min-
ing there. We'll have
to steal them. Bokas-
sa has five wives in
Bangui. Let's give him
another one, prettier
and more high-class
than he could ever
dream of having. Get a
good-looker ready for
his visit, and then let
Bokassa find her him-
self. And then I'll be
magnanimous with
him. "
During his visit to
Bucharest, Bokassa fell
head over heels in love
with a comely Ruma-
nian doctor who was a
security agent sent to him when he gave
the first sneeze of an apparent cold. Fol-
lowing Bokassa's repeated requests to
Ceausescu, the doctor was sent to Africa
on a special presidential airplane to fur-
ther treat the cold he had allegedly con-
tracted in Rumania. The doctor was
overwhelmed with jewels, was given a
personal villa full of servants, and be-
came Bokassa's unofficial but favorite
wife.
When she asked for fresh tomatoes
and other vegetables, Bokassa implored
the Rumanian ambassador to help him.
Military airplanes brought an agricultur-
al team and equipment into the country,
ai
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
and soon a modern vegetable farm start-
ed producing for Bokassa and the doc-
tor. The manager of the farm. an agri-
cultural engineer, was actually a DIE
officer who became the doctor's case
officer.
Soon after that, Vasile Pungan and
Nicolae Doicaru, two of Ceausescu's
personal advisers, made a secret trip to
Bangui. When they returned home, they
reported that Bokassa had accepted 10
percent of the Rumanian profits from
diamond mines developed on preferen-
tial terrains in his country, taking the
business away from Western companies
with experience in diamond mining.
Several years later, the doctor decided
to take her life in her own hands. She
escaped from Bangui with some of the
jewels Bokassa had given her and began
a new life in France. Discovered by the
French press, she made history telling of
her romance with Bokassa, but she care-
fully omitted all mention of her connec-
tions with the DIE.
"MAKE 'UNK OF
CARTER'S INE)(PEItlENCE"
We were walking along the garden path
at his Bucharest residence when Ceau-
sescu suddenly started talking.
"[ read through the whole file you
gave me on Carter and his family
twice. " [ had given him a briefing file on
American President Jimmy Carter.
based on material in DIE records.
'I can see that, despite his innocent
smile, his soft voice, and shy manner,
Carter is not an easy or predictable fel-
low. But he is not contradictory, as you
describe him. The file says that, al-
though he graduated from the Naval
Academy only in 60th place out of 820,
he has the intelligence of a near genius, a
fantastic memory, an unusual capacity to
absorb masses of information, and is a
very good listener and a very hard work-
er. That's not a contradiction. I never
graduated from any university before
becoming a political leader. His rivals
accuse him of having concealed a high
degree of stubbornness and a vindictive-
ness behind his smile when he was the
governor of Georgia. That's not a con-
tradiction, either. It's probably normal
for a politician.
"In my opinion, his weak points are
other ones. One is his ridiculous reli-
giousness.... Another weakness is his
intense inner life, which is detrimental to
the dynamism he needs to have.
"Nevertheless, as I read in your file
and between its lines, Carter has enough
qualities to succeed. You probab
haven't realized that there are even sortie
similarities between him and me. Both
of us consider that the people elected u,
not just as an individual but as a pater.
familias. that our wives and children
were also elected together with us..Ap,
ropos, you might pull together every.
thing you have on Carter's deep resp
for his wife and children and on his
commitment to giving them a high pro.
file during his presidency, and then give
it to Comrade Elena. That may help to
change her broken record that Carter is
nothing but a peasant.
"Carter's biggest disadvantage is that
he is totally inexperienced-what can
you expect from somebody who raised
and sold peanuts all his life? That's one
of the worst sides of the American sys-
tem: Anybody can become President,
if he has money and a nice smile, and
then, just when he starts to learn some.
thing, he has to leave. They just can't
understand that being chief of state is a
profession....
"Anyway, that's their problem, isn't
that true? And we should make use of
Carter's inexperience and friendship as
long as he is President. That's why I
insisted on having my visit there in the
very first days of his presidency, to find
him virgin, uncontaminated by the influ-
ence of others. "
Suddenly Ceausescu stopped, hung
onto a button of my jacket, and, looking
me in the eye, continued in a low, con-
spiratorial tone. "In your file on Car-
ter's family, I see that his brother, Billy,
is some kind of drunk, a corruptible fel-
low who doesn't know how to do any-
thing but is trying to turn a fast buck any
way he can. I see also that the DIE has
turned up a foreign agent who might
manage to build up some business rela-
tions with Carter's farm and with Billy.
Isn't that a Liberian who has an export-
import company in London?"
"Yes, Comrade," came my answer.
"We should do everything we can to
encourage this operation. We import
enough peanuts into Rumania, so let's
buy them from him, from his farm. We
can use so many peanuts that we could
buy up his whole production for at least
the next ten years. Let's make Billy our
representative for importing peanuts and
Rumanian president Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, arrive at Wash-
ington's Andreas Air Force Base in December 1973. The hatless man in horn-
rims behind them is the author of this story, Ion Mihai Pacepa, then a
Rumanian intelligence officer and personal adviser to Ceausescu.
gotten enough of a taste for this money.
your Liberian agent's. When Billy has
g other things. But for the beginning, lets
i work under a foreign flag. Let's import
11 peanuts through the London company of
i then we can tell him that it's not English
or Liberian money, but ours. But only
when we are sure that Billy won't be able
to do without his new source of
income. "
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
ADVICE FOR KOMAK
41though Ceausescu has never been in a
public movie theater, he is a movie fa-
nanc. Each of his four residences has a
fully equipped projection room and a
permanent film library. His favorites are
nnbvles about the Roman empire and Na-
poleon and American police films and
television shows.
During a movie at his private residence,
where he does not have to worry about
protocol or what people looking at him
will think, Ceausescu is a normal human
being, relaxed and entirely different
from his public image. He loves to watch
Kojak shows, not only because they are
full of action, but especially because
with his quick mind he has no trouble
figuring out the denouement of a Kojak
episode. Savoring the thought that he
would once again be one step ahead of
Kojak, he settled down into his chair,
disappearing completely from my sight
from where I was sitting behind him.
"Come on. Don't waste your time on
him, Commissar. He's a friend. You'd
do better to keep your eye on the dead
man's girlfriend. Hey, Ropoteanu, tell
him that in English. "
Ropoteanu was an English teacher
who had become an intelligence officer
and was Ceausescu's favorite interpreter
for movies.
"Don't listen to the captain, Kojak,"
Ceausescu continued his advice. "He
didn't know anything in the last movie,
either. In Rumania I wouldn't keep him
on the payroll a single day longer. "
"An idiot. Nick. An idiot," piped up
Elena, who was sitting in the chair be-
side him. "All security officers are idi-
ots. I've told you that many times.
Wouldn't it be better to show a war
movie, with the army in it? They're idi-
ots, too, but at least they carry out orders
without asking any questions. "
At the end of the movie the lights
revealed Elena fast asleep, with her head
resting on the soft back of her easy chair.
Her mouth and her robe had both fallen
indecorously open.
HUMAN RIGHTS
AND WRONGS
CEAIISESCUS GRAND PLAN
"Horizon" was by far the most secret
DIE operation, and its files were locked
to the DIE's super-secure vault, continu-
ously covered by closed-circuit televi-
Shortly after Ion Mihai Pacepa defected in 1978, Nicolae Nicolae, then
Rumanian ambassador to the US, was recalled from his country's embassy on
Sheridan Circle (above), where Pacepa had served as an intelligence operative.
sion cameras and accessible only to the
minister of interior, the political chief of
the DIE, and me. Everything in its files
is written only by hand.
"Horizon" was Ceausescu's grand
plan, an extension of Euro-Commu-
nism, for strengthening his Communist
rule in Rumania with help from capitalist
governments. It was created by him as a
masterpiece of a political-influence op-
eration, aimed at gaining Western good
will, political support, credits, and pro-
hibited technologies, without in the least
compromising Bucharest's orthodox
Marxist rule.
"Horizon," contained in several
bulky files organized by geographic
area, was the only place where one could
find a distillation of Ceausescu's overall
goals and concrete objectives for each
non-Communist country of interest,
starting with the United States and end-
ing with Bokassa's Central African Re-
public, as well as data on the most
important influence agents created by
the DIE over the years.
Concealed in the "Horizon" files was
information on every major successful
influence operations created by Ceau-
sescu. Among the oldest was the opera-
tion to provide clandestine support for
Willy Brandt, the chairman of West Ger-
many's Social Democratic patty, in two
parliamentarian votes of confidence, in
1973 and 1974, which he won only by
also having two supporting votes from
the opposition. According to the DIE
station chief in West Germany, the two
deputies in question had been ap-
proached by Rumanian intelligence offi-
cers, who plied them with valuable gifts
and persuaded them to vote against their
own party.
One of the newest operations docu-
mented there, and by far the most impor-
tant. was the annual effort to have the
United States Congress renew most-fa-
vored-nation trade status from Rumania.
For this operation, almost every Ru-
manian representative in the United
States, including the ambassador. was
replaced by an intelligence officer. More
than 10,000 Rumanians were recruited
as agents and sent to the West as emigres
in a mass operation designed to influence
the governments of the United States and
its allies, especially West Germany and
Israel. Intelligence officers and agents
were secretly sent to the United States to
take over control of emigre organiza-
tions and direct their publications and
social activities.
The file showed that the DIE had
helped finance and direct the activities of
such emigre organizations as the Amen-
can-Rumanian Central Foundation, the
American-Rumanian National Institute,
and the American-Rumanian National
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
Committee for Human Rights. Through
such organizations, the DIE conducted
an intensive lobby on Capitol Hill and
led street domonstrations in Washing-
ton. In 1975. when Rumania first re-
ceived most-favored-nation status, the
DIE's chief was rewarded by being
made a Hero of the Rumanian Socialist
Republic, and the chief of the US
Brigade was promoted to the rank of
general.
Ceausescu considered that this opera-
tion gave Communist Rumania the most
valuable political, financial, and techno-
logical benefits in its history.
TARGETS OF ASSASSINATION
At the conclusion of his 1978 visit to the
US, Ceausescu and Jimmy Carter issued
a joint declaration in which both af-
firmed the "observance of and promo-
tion of respect for human rights and fun-
damental freedoms, including all the
conditions required for a free, dignified,
and prosperous life. "
Three months later, during a walk in
his garden, Ceausescu ordered Pacepa
to arrange the assassination of Emil
Georgescu, a supervising editor in
Radio Free Europe's Rumanian
Department.
"Emil Georgescu must be killed,
without involving the Rumanian govern-
ment, " Pacepa recalls Ceausescu say-
ing. "Foreign professional criminals
must be used, and that wasps' nest, Ra-
dio Free Europe headquarters. must be
wiped out with powerful explosives. "
Pacepa defected one week later.
In the totalitarian logic of the Rumanian
government, emigres are Rumanian citi-
zens subject to Rumanian laws, regard-
less of their current citizenship. In deal-
ing with them, the DIE has the same role
as the security forces have inside Ru-
mania: It acts as the "extended arm of
the proletarian dictatorship. "
In 1975 the DIE began an ambitious
project to set up a complete. computer-
ized data bank on the more than 600,000
native or second-generation Rumanians
living in the West, using consular, mail-
censorship, and intelligence informa-
tion. Undercover officers and agents
sent abroad to take over control of
emigre organizations, publications, and
social activities used various covers,
from folk-art instructor to priest.
Because the Rumanian government
has no prisons abroad, it uses beatings,
kidnappings, and unattributable assassi-
nations to "discipline" emigres in the
West. It has become a matter of political
prestige for Bucharest to try to execute
defectors who have been granted politi-
cal asylum in such countries as the Unit-
ed States, France, and West Germany.
Explosive letters and packages are sent
to Rumanian anti-Communist leaders in
exile, such as those mailed during the
1981 Madrid Conference on Security in
Europe.
Dissidents who have been given exit
visas from Rumania have also become
DIE targets for assassination in the
West. In April 1982, Matei Haiducu, a
Rumanian who moved to France in
1975, confessed to French authorities
that he was a Rumanian illegal officer
and that his current assignment was to
assassinate dissident writers Paul Goma
and Virgil Tanase in France "by any
means," the only condition being that
Rumanian government involvement not
become known. Haiducu turned over to
the French a fountain pen loaded with a
toxic chemical that he had been given to
accomplish the deed, in true spy-thriller
fashion.
Orders have repeatedly been given for
the silencing of emigre journalists and
others who publicly criticize the Ruma-
nian dictatorship, including US govern-
ment employees working for Radio Free
Europe. Monica Lovinescu. a respected
but outspoken French citizen who for
years has been an employee of Radio
Free Europe in France, has particularly
incensed Ceausescu.
"Lovinescu must be silenced," Ceau-
sescu ordered at one point. "Not killed.
We don't need any uncomfortable
French and American investigations just
now. She should be beaten to a pulp and
have her jaw, teeth. and arms broken, so
that she will never again be able to speak
or write-beaten in her own home so she
and others will learn that no place is safe
for people who calumniate the proletari-
an dictatorship, not even their own
homes. She should become a living
corpse, an unforgettable example for
others."
In November 1976 Lovinescu was se-
verely beaten in her home by a Palestine
Liberation Organization group acting on
Rumania's behalf.
Emil Georgescu. the program editor
at Radio Free Europe in Munich whom
Ceausescu had ordered me to have killed
in 1978, was brutally stabbed 22 times at
his own home on July 28, 1981. and
barely escaped with his life. That order
played a decisive role in my final break
with Bucharest.
THE FLESH TRADE
Trade in human beings became another
important business for the DIE. Ceau-
sescu was obliged to open the door for
emigration. despite his personal repug-
nance to it, by the international move-
ment for human rights and the freedom
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
The Ceausescus join President and Mrs. Nixon on the White House balcony in
October 1970. Earlier in the month Ceausescu had addressed the UN General
Assembly, where he called for the "abolition of military blocs."
of movement. in particular the Helsinki
Agreement on Security and Cooperation
in Europe and the decision by the US
Congress to tie most-favored-nation
trade status to emigration rights. Emi-
gration provided Ceausescu with politi-
cal gain, and he soon decided to use it for
financial profit as well, in a highly confi-
dential operation kept so secret that at his
direction it was handled only through the
DIE.
The DIE initiated discreet contacts in
Israel and West Germany and cautiously
suggested that, if Rumania could be
reimbursed in hard currency for the so-
cial and education expenses incurred for
the ethnic German and Jewish emigres
seeking to leave Rumania, the emigra-
tion process might be accelerated.
Secret, unwritten agreements were
made with the Israeli foreign intelli-
gence service and with the West German
Ministry of Interior. The Israelis and the
West Germans paid thousands of dollars
for each Rumanian Jew and ethnic Ger-
man granted an exit visa. in some cases
as much as $50,000 per person, depend-
ing on his or her level of education and
profession.
Over the years. many hundreds of
millions of dollars were secretly paid to
Rumania, along with low-interest credits
issued through the DIE as bonuses for
increasing the emigration quotas. For
reasons of secrecy, most of the payments
were made in cash and only in US dol-
lars. No other member of the Rumanian
government knew anything about them
except the prime minister, who was giv-
en only a general briefing and instructed
that, if the matter even came up, he
should vehemently deny any suggestion
that Jews and Germans were being sold.
In February 1972 Ceausescu decided
that additional side benefits might be had
from the emigration of Jews and Ger-
mans. "No Rumanian citizen." Ceau-
sescu stated, "whether of Rumanian,
Jewish, or German ancestry, should be
given an emigration visa unless he is a
security agent, has signed a secret. writ-
ten agreement with the security forces,
and has agreed to act as an intelligence
agent abroad." More than 10,000 emi-
grating Rumanians were recruited in a
mass operation between 1972 and 1978
and instructed to penetrate the govern-
ments, political life, and scientific and
technological circles of the United
States. Israel. West Germany. and other
Western countries.
Most of the Jewish and many of the
German emigres never used their secret
communications systems and simply dis-
appeared as agents.
AS OTHERS SEE US
THE AMERICAN WAY
During a previous visit to the United
States, I was in the Cabinet Room with
Ceausescu. when, counting the labeled
chairs, he suddenly said. ''Can you be-
lieve it? Only thirteen secretaries! Why
do we have to have a president and a
prime minister? Why do we keep a
prime minister, twelve deputy prime
ministers, and 40 ministers? Why does
the prime minister need 53 labeled chairs
for a government meeting? We should i
learn from the American system of de-
mocracy. We should apply the same
principles. And if some journalist says
we have a dictatorship, we should an-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
swer that our government is a faithful
copy of the American government. As
here. we should have only one boss and
several secretaries carrying out his
orders."
That was when Ceausescu gave me
the order to give him a complete study on
the American system of government.
Based on this order, a DIE officer under
deep cover. Colonel Dumitru Mazilu,
was sent to the United States for six
months to prepare the study.
When I gave the final report to Ceau-
sescu, he promptly said: You don't
understand anything! I don't need to
know anything about the Congress and
the judicial system. Stop talking about
the three branches of their government.
Rewrite the report covering only the ad-
ministration, and strongly emphasize
that the American government has only a
President. a Vice President. and a few
secretaries, that they don't have and nev-
er have had any prime ministers! Write
that they have a presidential system
without any prime minister or deputy
prime ministers and that that's all they
need. Someday we have to finish with
the wastefulness we have. We don't
need two governments, one run by the
president and the other by the prime
minister. "
THE AIR-CONDMONED
NIGHTMARE
Air conditioning was probably my big-
gest headache for all the presidential vis-
its I prepared.
Shortly after he had taken over, after
the death of his predecessor, Gheorghe
Gheorghiu-Dej, Ceausescu returned
from a secret visit to Moscow and began
worrying about a protracted pain in his
throat. Gheorghiu-Dej had died from a
fast-developing form of cancer, its first
symptoms having appeared as throat
pains not long after his return from a
vacation in the USSR together with the
Italian Communist leader Palmiro To-
gliatti, who had died very suddenly after
his return under circumstances consid-
ered strange. Ceausescu was convinced
beyond the shadow of a doubt that both
had been assassinated by the Kremlin
through secret radiation with a strong
source of isotopes, and his throat pains
therefore caused him indescribable
panic.
Doctors from all around the world
were secretly brought to Bucharest over
an anguishing period of long weeks. Fi-
nally an old, very conservative West
Getman doctor put it to him very blunt-
ly: "You, sir, talk too much and too
loudly, and your vocal chords are terri-
bly irritated. If you want to keep them,
you must protect them.'*
The doctor's prescriptions were old-
fashioned: chamomile tea as often as
possible, but always when he had to
speak longer and louder than usual, and
protection from any kind of drafts, in-
cluding fans and air conditioners. Since
then, during every speech Ceausescu
makes, a waiter changes his chamomile.
tea glass every half hour. no matter
whether it is a routine meeting. a Polit-
bureau session, or a Party Congress.
Every single fan had to be removed from
all his residences. and the central air-
conditioning system installed at the Cen-
tral Committee of the Communist Party
was dismantled.
During his foreign visits, especially to
North and South America, I encountered
indescribable difficulties in having the
air conditioning and heating turned off
in every building he was to visit and
closing or at least covering every vent.
In Venezuela, for instance, he ordered
me to disconnect the air conditioner in
his official vehicle, so that the Venezue.
lan driver would not under any cir.
cumstances be able to turn it on. As
it was an armored car, the windows
of which could not be opened, the
trips around Caracas quickly became a
nightmare.
I also had never-ending discussions
with the management of the Waldorf
Astoria in New York and other hotels
used by Ceausescu. when I would ask
them to turn off the central air-condition-
ing or heating systems and to seal off
every vent. It repeatedly happened that
Rumanian dignitaries accompanying
Ceausescu abroad spent their nights
trying to find and seal off hidden vents or
leaky windows.
DISTINGUISHED AMERICANS
-Pacepa's just been telling me some in-
teresting information about the Amen-
can President." Ceausescu told Elena as
she entered the room. "Carter looks un-
expectedly nice, even distinguished,
showing esteem for his wife and devo-
tion to his family. I've asked him [Pace-
pal to prepare a file for you that I hope
you'll like."
"Go soak your head. Nick! Have you
ever seen a 'distinguished American"
Elena squawked. trying to put all her
knowledge of English into the last two
words. "Name me dust one movie where
you've seen such an American, and on
top of it all a loving husband and devoted
father, and I'll eat it. Nick. And you."
she went on. turning toward me. "Don't I
you fill the Comrade's head with your 4
intrigues and fantasies. Do you under-
stand?" Then turning back to Ceauses-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
i
u. "You'd better come to bed. Nick.
rather than wasting your night away lis-
tening to fairy tales. You want to learn
about Americans? You have your Kojak
movies. They are at least authentic.
made by Americans!"
BOOKS, BLACKS,
AND BARBARA WALTERS
The following conversation took place at
Blair House on April 11. 1978, the first
day of Ceausescu's visit to Jimmy
Carter.
"What about the book exhibition I or-
dered?" Ceausescu asked me.
"It opened today at the Martin Luther
King Library. with books printed in all
the languages of the various ethnic
groups living in Rumania and with a
special exhibit case containing books
written by and about you. The report
says that the director of the library
opened the exhibition with an address
presenting you as a brilliant thinker and
political personality, whose love of
books has favorably influenced the
whole course of publishing activity in
Rumania. "
"Listen to him. Nick." Elena broke
in. "In all of America, they couldn't
find any better place than a library for
black people!"
"Anything new on the television in-
terview?" Ceausescu intervened.
''Yes. ABC insists on taping the inter-
yiew tomorrow afternoon so they can put
parts of it on the air during the prime-
time news tomorrow evening, the first
day of the visit, and broadcast the entire
interview on Sunday. April 16. on the
Issues and Answers show. "
is the interviewer somebody?" he
asked.
"Yes. Comrade. Barbara Walters.
one of the ABC's best television inter-
viewers."
"A woman? A woman to interview
you, Nick? That's ridiculous! Isn't she
the harpy who interviewed Castro and
made a whole circus out of his personal
life, his estranged wife. and his love
affairs? Isn't she that one?''
..I think. Comrade Elena, that she
interviewed Fidel Castro several years
ago."
''Fiddlers! That's all they all are,
nothing but fiddlers. I told you so. Its all
a plot against you. no question about it.
Why else, out of 200 million Americans,
could they find only that harpy to inter-
view you? It's a plot to compromise you,
Comrade. Can't you see that?"
After reaching this decision, Elena fu-
riously left the dining area. During
Ceausescu's visits abroad, Elena was al-
ways dissatisfied with everything and
everybody.
TRADECRAFT
THE NUCLEAR GO-BETWEEN
In 1975 I showed Ceausescu credible
DIE information indicating that Pakistan
was conducting secret operations to de-
velop its own nuclear capability. Two
days later he ordered me to arrange a
secret meeting for him with Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto, Pakistan's prime minister. With
the help of Andrei Stefan, secretary of
the Central Committee of the Commu-
nist party and chief of its internation-
al department, a short stopover was
arranged to take place in Karachi.
with Bhutto welcoming Ceausescu at the
airport.
When Ceausescu's airplane landed in
Karachi, Bhutto was there, accompanied
by numerous local dignitaries. He invit-
ed Ceausescu for lunch to a nearby pal-
ace. where we arrived after almost an
hour's ride on a hot, dusty day. In the
palace garden tents were already wait-
ing, filled with food in large silver pots.
For each guest there were several ser-
vants ready to carpr out his least wish at
the slightest signal. In the main tent, the
highest Rumanian and Pakistani digni-
taries joined their two leaders for lunch.
Ceausescu has a great talent for per-
sonal diplomacy. most of his successes
having been brought about by personal
discussions. A good psychologist, he
pays a great deal of attention to knowing
his discussion partners. and he tries to
impress and subdue them with a deliber-
ately open and direct manner and with
discreet anti-Soviet allusions.
Bhutto was a relatively easy prize for
the experienced and well-prepared
Ceausescu. By the end of the luncheon,
Bhutto was addressing Ceausescu only
in superlatives.
After lunch, Ceausescu asked for a
private discussion. accompanied only by
a DIE interpreter and me. He opened his
frontal attack on Bhutto. ''You and I
share the same dream. to make a place in
history for our countries. and the best
way to do that is to build their power. In
our time the only real power is nuclear
power. We should build it secretly.
Working separately. our intelligence
services"-pointing toward me-''have
obtained remarkable results. Together
we might be able to realize our dreams.
In this envelope is a sample of what we
can do. Read it later on. If you agree.
give me a sign. If not, you may forget the
whole thing."
Bhutto put the envelope carefully into
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
his pocket. without opening it. It con-
L CORK CAPER
tained a detailed inventory of the nude THE
ar-intelligence information Rumania ical espionage also ex-
ex-
could secretly provide to Pakistan. Technolog was
Then there was a short break in the tended to unclassified projects. in order
meeting. to save costs on legal imports. The corn-
When Bhutto came back into the plete blueprints for newly designed
room, he proposed that he and Ceauses- American aluminum rolling mills were
cu make a public declaration. Ceausescu used as the basis for constructing high-
spontaneously gave a public speech. fol- capacity aluminum-foil which were and sheet-metal
met to go
lowed by Bhutto.
Intelligent, sensitive, and ambitious, into production between 1982 and 1984.
Bhutto reacted almost exactly as Ceau- Three glass factories were built from
sescu had expected. Just before our de- 1976 to 1980 based on illegally obtained
pasture. he gave Ceausescu an envelope. intelligence provided by an American
"Inside is a name. one of our most secret engineer in exchange for the initial sum
names. Don't try to find him." Bhutto of $200,000. The intention was to flood
said in my direction. "because he the American market with glass products
doesn't have any official positions. I will at dumping prices. Today Rumanian
personally instruct him and send him to glass products are for sale at attractive
Bucharest. I will send you the date and prices all over the United States and
flight number through your ambassador, Western Europe.
without further explanation. In Bucha- Through an agent recruited at the
rest one of your people should meet him United States Department of Agricul-
and organize future cooperation. It lure's Research Center in Beltsville, Ru-
should be a personal contact between mania secretly obtained the entire US
two individuals, not two governments. I national hybrid-corn collection, contain-
hope we never need discuss this matter ing more than 14.000 assortments and
again in our future cooperation, my dear species, which became the basis for fur-
friend." ther research in Rumania. Together with
Two weeks later I had a meeting in a other genetic materials also illegally ob-
safe house with the man who would be- tained from the United States. American
come "235." and the next day Ceauses- brands of corn, such as Pioneer or Wyo-
cu had both of us for a private dinner at ming, soon began to be replaced by Ru-
his residence in Snagov, not far from manian hybrid strains. As of 1978 they
Bucharest. Radu Andreescu was the op- numbered from RH-101 up to RH-291.
erational name of a brilliant DIE engi- RH standing for "Rumanian hybrid."
neer who became his case officer. Ten In July 1978 the Rumanian ministry of
days later Andreescu left for Pakistan agriculture estimated the total savings
with a voluminous diplomatic pouch for Rumania generated by this operation
containing the whole documentation se- over the years at a staggering 300 billion
cretly obtained from Canada and used to dollars.
construct a Rumanian heavy-water
plant. ~7~p~T1ON
He came back with the complete ~1h1~.vw ~[MGI Iw1
project for a small Canadian Candu reac-
tor that the Pakistani government had
bought as well as significant intelligence .4ccompanied by Pacepa and others,
data on the industrial-size Candu nuclear Ceausescu visited the Dallas headquar-
reactor. ters of Texas Instruments during his
On further visits to Pakistan, An- April 1978 trip to the United States..4f-
dreescu took with him technical intelli- te'rwards, at a dinner arranged by the
gence on West German and French nu- Texas Chamber of Commerce, Ceauses-
clear reactors and security systems, and cu said. in part:
he brought back to Rumania the Degussa "Some of the products turned out by
centrifugal system for enriching ura- Texas Instruments also have a strategic
nium. data on the industrial production character. We are not concerned with
of uranium 235, and other military tech- turning out such products, because we
nical nuclear intelligence that Pakistan stand for disarmament, for the destruc-
had obtained. tion of atomic armaments and of weap-
A recently arrived postcard was the ons in general. We stand for a world
first sign of life we had gotten from without weapons, a world of peaceful
"235" after the July 5. 1977? coup, cooperation.
when General Muhammed Zia ul-Haq
arrested Bhutto and declared himself In all of Eastern Europe, and in their
chief administrator of martial law. foreign intelligence services, Texas In-
"You must be terribly careful! We struments was considered to be the most
badly need to keep our Rosenberg," said advanced producer of microelectronics
Ceausescu, and chips in the
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
1IIt-~ ^ ---
The Ceausescus join the Carters in 1978 for more waving from the White
House balcony. On this trip Elena Ceausescu was not pleased with the sleeping
arrangements at Blair House.
one of the best-protected private compa-
nies working on classified government
contracts.
During the Brezhnev-Ustinov-Andro-
pov militarization era. I was repeatedly
asked by Soviet KGB representatives to
direct the DIE toward penetrating Texas
Instruments and obtaining its highly se-
cret microelectronic technologies. but
the intensive efforts made in this di-
rection over many years were without
success.
Some technological information was
later obtained indirectly, however.
through cooperation with a prestigious
British firm producing microelectronics
under a Texas Instruments license. Sev-
eral hundred volumes, containing tens of
thousands of pages of classified Ameri-
can documents, were photographed and
turned over by a newly recruited and
well-paid British agent.
These documents almost entirely
filled Ceausescu's executive-committee
room when they were presented to him.
He considered this operation one of the
most valuable producers of technologi-
cal intelligence for Rumania, and he di-
rected that it be used as the basis for the
secret production of chips and other mi-
croelectronics in a top-secret military
direct intelligence operation. At the end
of March, when I was sent to the US by
Ceausescu to prepare for his visit, he
ordered me to go personally to Texas
Instruments in my official capacity as
presidential adviser and to open its doors
for officers from both the Washington
and the New York DIE stations. But up
until the time of Ceausescu's visit there.
the Rumanians had been totally unable to
talk with any engineers or technicians
from Texas Instruments, being restrict-
ed to meeting with only public-relations
or security officers.
Several weeks later as Ceausescu
stepped inside the company's building,
he shot me a triumphant look, then
turned to the other people present, his
face and eyes lighted up with enormous
self-satisfaction. He had accomplished
his wish to be the first Communist presi-
dent to set foot inside Texas Instru-
ments, to do something Brezhnev had
been unable to do. Indeed. Ceausescu
was at last able to walk into that prohibit-
ed microelectronics empire. but the
equipment and the people working there
could be seen by him only through a
protective window wall.
S EAllNG NASAL SECRETS
plant close to Bucharest especially creat-
ed for this purpose. But this beginning
only whetted his appetite for a real pene-
tration of Texas Instruments.
After Leonid Brezhnev had personally
asked him for information on American
microelectronics. Ceausescu asked me
to include a visit to Texas Instruments in
the itinerary of his April 1978 visit to the
US, as a way of opening the door to a
On Saturday. April 15. 1978, we were
flying from Dallas to Houston on an Air
Force One airplane provided by the
White House for Ceausescu's visit to the
United States. Without enthusiasm we
began a new game of chess.
"Was the contact with 'ARMAND'
I0.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
I,
put on ice for the duration of the visit, as
we discussed, Pacepa?"
"Yes, Comrade. We paid him to take
a two-week vacation in Italy. It's best for
him to be as far away from NASA as
possible. "
"That's good. Sometime you may
bring him to the Black Sea, under anoth-
er name, and treat him to a vacation
there that he'll never forget. "
"ARMAND" was a British engineer
who was recruited in the early 1970s on
the basis of "tax-exempt" money to pro-
vide technological information.
He proved to be a workaholic who
was greedy to make a fortune, and he
turned his contact with the DIE into a big
business.
Ceausescu became aware of "AR-
MAND" when the NASA technical doc-
uments he furnished caused stupefaction
in Bucharest and a report about them,
handwritten and signed by Gheorghe
Oprea, the first deputy prime minister,
was presented to Ceausescu. The report
stated that the NASA documents con-
tained incredibly valuable technological
and technical information never before
seen in any published material. Because
of imperfections in the American bu-
reaucratic system, the material had not
yet been legally classified. The report
further stated that the information could
be immensely useful for the creation of a
Rumanian space industry, with meteor-
ological rockets as its public facade and
military rockets as its most important
and much larger component.
It was proposed that the DIE mount an
intensive operation to steal as many tech-
nical and technological materials from
the United States as possible, before the
deficiency in the security precautions
would be discovered and measures taken
to classify such material.
Ceausescu has a particular fascination
for everything that is on a grand scale.
Now, because of the NASA documents,
he could visualize his dream of a space
program as not only fantasy but as a real
possibility. He ordered me to arrange an
exposition of the most significant NASA
documents in a room next door to his
office, taking maximum security precau-
tions to ensure that the secret of our
possession of the NASA documents be
tightly kept.
These NASA documents became a
cult object of admiration for Ceausescu.
The exhibit remained next door to him
for many weeks, and he repeatedly visit-
ed the secure room where they were
kept, asking for explanations and de-
tails. Then he started showing the exhib-
it off-first to his wife, Elena, then to his
son, Nicu, and to his brothers, Ilie and
Nicolae, both generals, and eventually
to his closest collaborators, such as
Prime Minister Manea Manescu and
Secretaries of the Central Committee of
the Communist Party Ilie Verdet, An-
drei Stefan, and Corneliu Burtica.
Whenever Ceausescu took me for an
evening stroll in his garden, I understood
very well that he wanted to talk about
something very confidential.
"Remember how, on our last visit to
the United States in 1975, Kissinger said
that his time and his life were limited,
and that he could and would not spend
them dealing with small countries, be-
cause they couldn't play any significant
role in contemporary history? Or how he
said that he should spend his time only
on the big countries, because only they
held the key for the peace and the future
of mankind? I said then that he was
wrong and that history would prove it.
With his German head he can't under-
stand that in today's scientific explosion,
undeveloped countries like India or
small countries like Pakistan can one day
possess nuclear arms and then have a
powerful voice in world affairs."
Ceausescu stopped, grabbed one
of my buttons, and said, looking deep
into my eyes, "Maybe one day Ru-
mania, too, if we could attract Qaddafi's
money."
AGENTS OF TERROR
Through cooperation among the Soviet-
bloc services, Communist state-owned
land, air, and sea transportation organi-
zations were secretly used as cover for
the movements of specially trained offi-
cers and for the clandestine shipping of
captured persons.
Based on the Bulgarian model, in
1972 the CIE (Centrala de Informatii
Externe) assumed direct control of the
whole TIR (Transport International
Routier) land transportation system.
Bulgaria has one of the largest TIR fleets
in Europe, basically intended for the
rapid shipment of its fruits and vegeta-
bles to the West. As was the case in
Bulgaria, in less than two years' time
most of the drivers of the Rumanian TIR
trucks were CIE officers under cover,
who were trained to transport people and
equipment and to pick up espionage ma-
terials from dead drops placed along
Western highways.
Patterned after Bulgaria's Balkanair,
the Rumanian airline company TAROM
was taken over by the military intelli-
gence service, Directia de Informatii a
Armatei. Positions in TAROM offices in
Western countries were filled with offi-
cers of the DIA (Rumanian military
intelligence).
Drawing on the Hungarian experience
with using water transportation on the
Danube for clandestine intelligence op-
erations, the CIE took over control of the
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
Rumanian chartering agency NAVLO-
MAR, introducing undercover officers
into most of its offices abroad. The Bul-
garian foreign intelligence service
adopted identical measures.
These measures opened a new era in
terrorist operations. The intelligence of-
ficers assigned under transportation cov-
er were intensively trained. The logisti-
cal support systems at their control soon
began to be used for illegal import and
export. The TIR system was used for the
secret transportation of intelligence ma-
terials and prohibited goods, from em-
bargoed alloys to Western military
equipment captured in Lebanon. TIR
trucks were used to ship drugs and con-
traband arms sold to obtain foreign cur-
rency, particularly to Turkey, with the
cooperation of the Bulgarian authorities.
Some of these shipments were pro-
tected by diplomatic courier seals and
papers, as well as by foreign customs
seals. In Rumania, every kind of seal
used by foreign customs authorities was
duplicated over the years and used when
needed to replace an original cus-
toms seal destroyed in an intelligence
operation.
TAROM airplanes were used for the
"unaccompanied diplomatic pouch,"
which consisted of documents, illegally
obtained cash, illegal arms for use of the
CIE abroad, and technology and other
military equipment, including relatively
large napalm bombs and COBRA and
MILAN antitank missile systems.
NAVLOMAR's ships were occasion-
ally used for bulky pieces of equipment,
such as a Centurion tank the DIE
obtained, Air Force radar equipment
and rockets, and for technology equip-
ment illegally imported from Japan or
Hamburg.
Drawing on the experience of the Bul-
garians and the Yugoslavs, in the 1970s
the CIE started to look for foreign pro-
fessional criminals capable of carrying
out terrorist acts on its behalf. Ruma-
nia's close relations with Yasir Arafat,
the leader of the Palestine Liberation
Organization, opened the way for per-
sonal cooperation between DIE leaders
and Hanny Hassan, the chief of the PLO
security department. Specially trained
PLO teams were used to carry out terror-
ist acts, which only Hassan knew were
undertaken for Rumania. Paramilitary
training schools were organized in Ru-
mania for training Greek and Spanish
Communist-party members for terrorist
and guerrilla-type operations. Although
the foreigners were trained under the
direction of the Rumanian military
forces and the DIA, the DIE utilized
them for spotting foreign profesional
criminals. The Greek Communists were
useful in recommending Greek and
Turkish terrorists. The Spanish Commu-
nists, for many years exiled to France,
facilitated contact with French smug-
glers and drug dealers.
The Mafia is another pool in which the
Communists fish. In the 1970s an Amer-
ican citizen who lived in New York City
was arrested by the Bulgarians at their
border for carrying undeclared, illegal
merchandise. He was turned over to Ru-
manian security authorities because his
wife was a native Rumanian. He admit-
ted to being a member of the Mafia in the
United States. Asked to locate Rumanian
defectors, he came up with reliable in-
formation through Mafia sources. He
was given the assignment of assassinat-
ing several defectors in the United
States, but the killings were prevented
by my defection.
ENEMY OF THE STATE
Within the Soviet bloc, religion is con-
sidered to be even more dangerous than
capitalism, because faith cannot be de-
stroyed through political-administrative
measures such as the nationalization of
capital. When Communist governments,
directed from the Kremlin, came to pow-
er in Eastern Europe, thousands of
churches were seized and turned into
cultural clubs, public libraries, Commu-
nist office buildings, or simply sealed
up. Baptism, marriage and other re-
ligious sacraments were outlawed and
replaced by civil ceremonies. Many
churchmen were sent to labor camps and
interrogation centers or secretly assassi-
nated. In Rumania more than 400 Greek
Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and other
priests and religious servants were se-
cretly arrested on one night, January 7,
1951. These operations were orchestrat-
ed by Moscow, as a step toward clearing
the way for a society in which Marxism
would be the sole religion.
The Roman Catholic Church, because
of its close ties to the faithful, its historic
ability to mobilize large population
groups, its huge international member-
ship, and its financial power, is consid-
ered by Communist governments to be a
dangerous threat. The neutralization of
the Catholic Church is a cardinal task for
every Communist government, even in
countries where there are relatively few
Catholics, such as Rumania. There the
Catholic bishops began to be confined to
monasteries in 1948. The campaign
against Catholicism culminated in a
show trial organized in Bucharest by the
Soviet forerunner of the KGB and the
Rumanian political police in April 1951.
The Vatican was accused of anti-state
plotting and espionage on behalf of the
CIA and other Western intelligence or-
ganizations. A number of Catholic cler-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
gy were sentenced to jail, official rela-
tions with the Vatican were broken, and
the seat of the Papal Nuncio was closed.
In the 1950s operations against the
Catholic Church inside the Soviet bloc
began to be closely coordinated by the
Kremlin. A fanatical and experienced
member of the Politburo in each country
was put in charge of measures against
the Catholic Church. In Rumania it was
Emil Bodnaras, a former colonel in the
Soviet Army during World War 11
whose real name was Bodnarenko. In
1945, backed by the Red Army, he had
been the main person behind the over-
throw of the recently elected Rumanian
democratic government. Bodnaras re-
mained in charge of measures against the
Catholic Church until his death shortly
before my defection in 1978.
By 1949, special departments charged
with supervising the activities of the
Catholic Church had been created in all
Soviet-bloc security forces. Every Cath-
olic Church building and religious ser-
vant became a target. An operation coor-
dinated by Moscow placed microphones
in every Catholic church, especially in
the confessionals and priests' resi-
dences. In Rumania, they were still there
at the time of my defection.
THE FIRST COMMUNIST
DYNASTY
IS RUMANIA
REALLY A MAVERICK?
Should the West support "maverick"
Rumania? Within the limits of Marxist-
Leninist principles and Warsaw Pact
obligations, Bucharest does display a
certain degree of independence from
Moscow, deciding its own day-to-day
foreign and domestic policies. The na-
ture of this administrative independence
is strongly influenced by the kind of
personal relationship existing at any giv-
en moment between Rumania's leader
and the top man in the Kremlin.
Under Nikita Khrushchev, who was
considerate of Rumania's leader, Bucha-
rest took pains to inform the Kremlin
about all its overt and covert decisions.
Leonid Brezhnev, however, ignored the
Rumanian leader, an extension of Brezh-
nev's earlier career as First Secretary of
the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Repub-
lic, where he forcibly ejected the Ruma-
nians living there after the province
came to the Soviet Union following
World War U. As a result, Ceausescu
kept Brezhnev at a distance. Under Yuri
Andropov and now under Mikhail Gor-
bachev, who seems to show less rigidity
toward him, Ceausescu has evidently re-
sumed closer ties with Moscow.
It is true that Rumania's political posi-
tion within the Warsaw Pact embodies a
degree of genuine independence and is
an irritant to the Soviet Union. Until
now, however, the pragmatic purpose of
that posture has been solely to increase
Ceausescu's personal stature and to at-
tract Western money and technology to
help build Communism in Rumania.
Rumania has today the second-most
orthodox Marxist domestic policy in the
whole Warsaw Pact, topped only by Al-
bania, in the entire world. The West's
support to Rumania over the past seven-
teen years, since its spectacular reaction
to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslova-
kia, has not brought about any change in
Ceausescu's policies toward his own
people, in terms of the economy, the
standard of living, or human rights. Ru-
mania's political police are now the most
oppressive in the entire Soviet bloc. The
ratio of security forces to the total popu-
lation is one to fifteen, higher than that in
any Western jail.
In order to export more fuel, presi-
dential decrees signed in November
1984 forbid the illumination of the
streets at night and drastically restrict the
use of private automobiles throughout
the whole country. According to the
Western press. during this past winter
the highest temperature permitted in-
doors in all public buildings in Rumania,
including hospitals, was only 40 degrees
Fahrenheit, which reportedly caused the
deaths of numerous newborn babies in
maternity hospitals.
Despite these dramatic signs of eco-
nomic distress, Rumania has not stopped
its politically motivated practice of pro-
viding long-term, low-interest-4 per-
cent-credits to Third World countries.
In another recent announcement, the
Greek newspaper Acropolis called atten-
tion to confidential negotiations taking
place for the sale of Aristotle Onassis's
famous personal yacht Christina (now
Aristoteles), which was given to the
Greek government after his death. It is to
be purchased as a presidential yacht for
Ceausescu. One of the most publicized
yachts in the world, the 325-foot Chris-
tina is fitted with such niceties as a ca-
nary-yellow amphibian airplane on the
upper deck. a lapis-lazuli fireplace, and
bar stools covered with whale foreskin,
which may strike only a Ceausescu as
not being too much.
At the same time, Ceausescu's mes-
sengers have been visiting the United
States and other Western countries ask-
ing for new financial assistance and the
renewal of most-favored-nation status,
all of which they claim is vitally needed
to support Rumania's independence.
/3.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8
States. Elena was in good spirits. Order-
PORTRAIT OF NACU ing her favorite champagne, she said, "I
had an interesting conversation with the
,qow 67 years old, Ceausescu is thought 'mayoress.' You know, Nick? They are
to be seriously, perhaps terminally ill. serious people. They don't want abor-
Hisdeath, though, would not necessarily lions. The 'mayoress' said that there's
mean that control of Rumania would an anti-abortion movement in all of
pass from the Ceausescu family. Louisiana and that the Catholic Church
Among Ceausescu 's most likely suc- played an important role in it. "
cessors are his wife. Elena, and his son Draining her glass at one swallow, she
Nicu. First deputy prime minister and continued: "Church or no, I've told you
head of the National Council for Science many times, Nick, that we should sign a
and Technology, Elena has been called presidential decree prohibiting abortions
by the Rumanian press "a scientist of in Rumania and obliging every family to
world reknown. "Nicu was once hailed have at least four children."
by the newspaper Rumania Libera Elena asked for another glass of
as being a part of "the line of great champagne and emptied it before going
continuity of the revolutionary, patriotic on. "Everybody agrees that you are the
spirit " greatest contemporary statesman and
In the small portrait that follows, Nicu economist. Even the mayor, who met
is at the Ceausescus' Bucharest resi- you for the first time tonight, said that
dence. Located on Primaverii Street, it you were a visionary, a personality that
is enclosed by a nine foot, gray-brick- would live for centuries. A man like you
and-concrete wall. Ceausescu has a is born once every 500 years.'
weekend home in nearby Snagov, a sum- Elena got yet another glass of cham-
mer home in Neptun on the Black Sea, pagne. "How do you feel, being so big,
and a winter home near Predeal in the so important, and yet the head of such a
Carpathian mountains. little country? Only Albania is smaller
than our country. If we sign such a
Ceausescu continued silently on the fast decree, in less than ten years Rumania
walk with me through his Bucharest gar- will grow to at least 40 million people.
den, without looking at me or at any- It will be entirely different then," she
thing around him. We passed around the concluded.
indoor swimming pool, a massive, mod- "Hey, woman. be serious-shut up,'
em building constructed of concrete and said Ceausescu, laughing but flattered.
glass, illuminated now in the evening. That was not the first time I had heard
Through the open sliding door I could Elena trying to push through an anti-
hear noisy rock-and-roll music and then abortion law. During the countless hours
splashes, not loud enough to have been I spent with her, I often saw her dream-
made by someone diving but too loud to ing. Her most cherished dream is to be-
have been made by someone swimming. come president herself in Rumania as
As we pased the open door, I glanced her idol, Isabel Peron. did in Argentina.
inside to my right and saw Ceausescu's She dreams of having her name go down
son Nicu throwing Scotch bottles into in history as the only woman president
the pool. He was probably drunk again. who during her presidency doubled the
Nicu had been a hard drinker ever since population of her country.
his middle teens, when he would often In the summer of 1977 Elena sent me
disappear from home and be found days to Paris for two weeks with her daugh-
later, drunk as a lord, at some friend's ter, Zoia, in order to arrange there for an
house or in some seedy restaurant. At "accidental" meeting with the man she
that time he would drink anything, from had selected to become Zoia's husband.
tsuica-a strong plum brandy similar to A passionate mathematician. Zoia is a
slivovitz, and the Rumanian national genuine dissident, fighting against her
drink-to Cointreau or champagne. father's cult of personality and her moth-
Now he drinks only Johnny Walker er'sreignofterror.
Black Label Scotch. One evening, when we were together
A passionate automobile driver, Nicu in a striptease nightclub in Montmartre,
has demolished at least a dozen cars Zoia exploded, having understood very
on his drunken sprees. killed one well what was going on: "I don't want
young Rumanian girl. and injured many my husband to be picked by anybody but
people. myself. I don't want to spend my whole
life just having babies. I want a life de-
My MACBETH cided by myself, not by ridiculous rules
and laws. If I hear the harpy trying just
OF TRANSYLVANIA once more to persuade Papa to sign an
anti-abortion law, I'll crack her skull
When we returned from a reception and open. She doesn't know how to do any-
dinner given by the mayor of New Or- thing else but dream about becoming a
leans during the 1978 visit to the United queen over 40 million idiots! "
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/10: CIA-RDP90-00552R000504840004-8