Word: ceau
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...With Ceauşescu at his side and a white ambulance trailing discreetly behind in deference to his age, De Gaulle plunged repeatedly into the crowds, delighting them with carefully rehearsed greetings in Rumanian. He talked to housewives, questioned workers in greasy overalls about wages and working conditions, listened gravely to serenades by gypsy bands...
...encouraged Ceauşescu - who is as critical of the Warsaw Pact as De Gaulle is of NATO - to join him in breaking up the system of blocs that divides Europe. Flamboyantly, he invited Rumania "to march side by side" with France toward a united Europe free from big-power domination. The two leaders agreed to form a commission to coordinate their efforts toward this goal, and De Gaulle declared in sonorous tones "the right of each people to speak in its own voice...
While full of praise for his ebullient host, Ceauşescu carefully avoided making any provocative statements that might have incurred Moscow's wrath; he is in enough trouble with Russia already. A series of recent head-on clashes with the Kremlin has so fractured relations that Rumania is no longer welcome at high-level Communist conferences. The open display of support from De Gaulle was thus a welcome boost to Ceauşescu, whose position in the Soviet-dominated camp is becoming increasingly isolated. While De Gaulle seeks to broaden his contacts in Eastern Europe, Ceauşescu...
Independent Course. After three years in office, Ceauşescu feels secure enough in his position to persist in his independent course while simultaneously moving toward more liberalization in Rumania's tightly controlled society. Defying Kremlin directives, Rumania has maintained cordial relations with both China and Israel, in Soviet eyes the Middle East aggressor. Recently, Rumania balked at joining fellow Warsaw Pact members in signing the Moscow-Washington nuclear-proliferation draft treaty, arguing that it failed to protect small nations from nuclear blackmail by larger powers...
...Rumanian man in the street, liberalization is still mostly a promise. The country's press remains the most controlled in Eastern Europe, and the police continue to keep a tight rein on the country's everyday life. Still, anticipating the effects of liberalization in nearby Czechoslovakia, Ceauşescu has begun to ease up on his people. "The past, when people went to work never knowing whether they would return home," he says, "must never be allowed to be repeated." To ensure that it is not repeated, he has purged 20,000 Stalinists from the government, including...