Word: escu
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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...
...Rumanians, however, were obviously intent on keeping the visit on a low key. Mrs. Meir was greeted by Premier Ion Gheorghe Maurer instead of President Nicolae Ceauşescu, and quickly driven off in a Mercedes limousine for an afternoon of preliminary discussions. At a state banquet given by Maurer, she openly pressed her hosts to arrange face-to-face talks between Israel and Egypt-a request that was pointedly ignored by the Rumanian press next day. At a return banquet that she gave for the Rumanians, Mrs. Meir served up fresh strawberries and avocados flown in for the occasion...
When they invited her to Bucharest, Rumanian diplomats had explained that President Ceauşescu had had a promising conversation with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during a recent visit to Cairo-and wanted to share his thoughts with Mrs. Meir. But after Ceauşescu and Mrs. Meir talked twice for a total of nine hours, aides strove to convey the impression that there was less to the meetings than met the eye. The conversation was said to be largely exploratory, as Mrs. Meir pressed for direct talks with Egypt and Ceauşescu avoided any role as mediator. Still...