Word: escu
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Each morning at 7:45, a black Mercedes limousine with a police escort arrives at the Bucharest mansion of Rumanian President Nicolae Ceauşescu and whisks him to his office in the columned Central Committee Building. "At 8:01 the President's advisers and ministers must be ready to receive a call from him," says an aide. The call could be about almost anything, since Ceauşescu (pronounced Chow-shess-cue) insists on passing judgment on all manner of problems, from the working conditions in a coal mine to the decor inside the capital...
...very personal role as Rumania's top man, Ceauşescu feels he has a predecessor. His office is dominated by a painting of Michael the Brave, a Walachian prince who briefly united what is present-day Rumania for the first time in 1600. At private gatherings it is not uncommon for the defiantly nationalistic Ceauşescu to break into a folk ballad about Michael's exploits...
Ceauşescu's nationalism, in fact, has made him the enfant terrible of the Warsaw Pact countries ever since he came to power in 1965. Harshly orthodox in domestic policy but highly independent abroad, he is the one Soviet bloc leader who has been able to go his own way without provoking a Czechoslovakia-style crackdown. He even goes so far as to say that military blocs have become an anachronism...
Rumania was the first Warsaw Pact country to recognize West Germany, the first to join the International Monetary Fund, and the first to receive an American President, Richard Nixon. Ceauşescu's role in thawing relations between Peking and Washington has earned him the gratitude of both China and the U.S. Nixon has promised to obtain most favored nation status for Rumanian trade, and Ceauşescu recently became the first East European leader to buy U.S. airliners-three Boeing 707s for more than $40 million, including one outfitted for Ceauşescu like Richard Nixon...
...effort to broaden diplomatic ties and make Rumania economically more self-reliant, Ceauşescu has also been courting the Third World to line up cheap raw materials and a ready market. This year he has already visited Pakistan and Iran, and he plans a nine-nation tour of Latin America. The Soviet Union remains Rumania's largest single trading partner, but 47% of Rumania's trade today is with non-Communist countries...