\nThe
\nopenness, transparency and popularity of a dictator are some of the
\nstrongest signals a propaganda machine can transmit. But since in a
\ndictatorship these signals must be interpreted as being the opposite,
\nso in the communist regime Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu’s figure was the
\nopposite to
\nthat
\npromoted by the propaganda. Not many Romanians can boast seeing him
\nfrom up close and ever fewer of shaking his hand. Suspicious and
\nincreasingly paranoid, Ceau\u0219escu would not let many people get too
\nclose to him.
\n<\/p>\n
One
We
Ceau\u0219escu had his people follow Sorin Cunea, just as he did most other journalists working for Radio Free Europe. He recalls being mistreated by the Romanian communist delegation in Ankara. When they let the media know they could enter the room that was going to host the cocktail party, I slung my recorder over my shoulder and headed for the door. Everyone else walked in, but I was stopped by an individual who addressed me in Romanian and his tone was typical of Securitate officers. He knew exactly who I was. Don’t put your recorder too close to the comrade. Keep a lower profile, can’t you see you’re bothering him? I didn’t answer back, so I just walked into the room. When it was Ceau\u0219escu’s time to speak, I placed the microphone as close to him as possible, so I could get his discourse on tape and be able to broadcast parts of it later. I have to say that, as he talked, he would take small sips from a glass with a yellowish liquid, which I think was chamomile tea. Maybe he was allowed to do that, or maybe the doctors who accompanied him knew better. Sorin Cunea was also asked if he ever got to speak directly to Ceau\u0219escu during press briefings. I addressed him a question once, in Bonn. I have to say I would always sit on the front rows at press briefings, because I really wanted my face to be in the news on the television. He answered my question
Ceausescu’s capricious
Sorin Cunea: Also
Seen
(CM\/VP\/bill)<\/p>\n <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Working for Radio Free Europe, Sorin Cunea had the oportunity to witness many of Ceau\u0219escu foreign visits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":281762,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41141],"tags":[34299,35250,31366,35051,66322],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-621323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-history-show","tag-communist","tag-dictator","tag-nicolae-ceausescu","tag-securitate","tag-sorin-cunea"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nof the few occasions when he would make an exception was when he
\ntravelled abroad and attended press conferences. Sorin Cunea worked
\nfor Radio Free Europe in the second half of the 1960s and is the
\nRomanian journalist abroad who saw Ceau\u0219escu from up close most
\noften. Interviewed by Radio Romania’s Oral History Centre in 1998,
\nhe said he would find out about Ceau\u0219escu’s foreign visits from
\nthe Romanian press. He witnessed a
\ntotal of 12
\nvisits by the Romanian communist leader:<\/span><\/p>\n
\nwere at the Bayer company, because his wife, who was a chemist,
\nwanted to
\nor
\nthe German hosts had arranged for her to visit the consortium in
\nLeverkusen. As Ceau\u0219escu
\nhad
\nofficial talks I didn’t have access to, Noel Bernard decided we
\nshould also go Leverkusen. After visiting a few departments, the
\ngroup of officials entered a conference room and that’s where she
\nwas given explanations and answers to the questions she asked. I then
\nsaw,
\nI think for the first time, Adrian P\u0103unescu, who was part of the
\npress delegation accompanying the two. Bernard and I were standing in
\nthe back and didn’t pay much attention to her questions. But I was
\nwatching how P\u0103unescu was sitting opposite her at the table and
\nnoting
\ndown every word she said, conspicuously, so that everyone would
\nsee
\nhow interested he was in what she was saying.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nthough. And during a news conference in Vienna, I was also in the front row, very
\ncarefully observing the two. Whenever he was answering one journalist or
\nanother, while the answer was being translated, Ceausescu looked intently at
\nhis wife, Elena, for approval. And I saw her nodding most of the time, as if
\nshe wanted to say ‘yeah, you answered pretty well to that one’. <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nand aggressive personality however often made him to take it out on the
\nothers. Sorin Cunea recalls such an episode <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nin Bonn, while answering a question regarding the Conference for Security and
\nCooperation, the translator, who was a guy from Bucharest translated and
\ncompleted the answer by specifically mentioning the ‘Conference for Cooperation
\nand Security in Europe’. Ceausescu swiftly turned to the translator and
\nretorted I didn’t say anything about Europe, you know. And the man had done nothing
\nwrong but only mentioned the complete title of that international conference. Furthermore,
\nCeausescu was always carrying a comb with him, which it used to adjust his
\nhaircut right before joining a conference or public event. He was always very
\nconcerned about his physical appearance.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nfrom up close, dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was nothing but a common,
\nsimple man very different from the image the Romanian Television was striving to promote. But somehow, history has succeeded in overemphasizing the image of this
\ntiny, little man.<\/p>\n