Editing Nicolae Ceaușescu (section)

==Leadership==
Ceaușescu was not the obvious successor to Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej when he died on 19 March 1965, despite his closeness to the longtime leader, but amid widespread infighting among older and more connected officials the Politburo turned to Ceaușescu as a compromise candidate. He was elected general secretary on 22 March 1965, three days after Gheorghiu-Dej's death. One of his first acts was to change the name of the party from the Romanian Workers' Party back to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Romania Communist Party of Romania], and declare the country the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Romania Socialist Republic of Romania] rather than a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic People's Republic]. In 1967, he consolidated his power by becoming president of the State Council (head of state).

Initially, Ceaușescu became a popular figure in Romania and also in the Western World, due to his independent foreign policy, challenging the authority of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union Soviet Union]. In the 1960s, he eased press censorship and ended Romania's active participation in the Warsaw Pact (though Romania formally remained a member). He not only refused to take part in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia] by Warsaw Pact forces, but actively and openly condemned that action. He even traveled to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague Prague] a week before the invasion to offer moral support to his Czechoslovak counterpart, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Dub%C4%8Dek Alexander Dubček]. Although the Soviet Union largely tolerated Ceaușescu's recalcitrance, his seeming independence from Moscow earned Romania maverick status within the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Bloc Eastern Bloc].

During the following years Ceaușescu pursued an open policy towards the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States United States] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Europe Western Europe]. Romania was the first Communist country to recognize [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Germany West Germany], the first to join the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund International Monetary Fund], and the first to receive a US President, [[Richard Nixon]]. In 1971, Romania became a member of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Agreement_on_Tariffs_and_Trade General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade] (GATT). Romania and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia Yugoslavia] were also the only Eastern European countries that entered into trade agreements with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Community European Economic Community] before the fall of the Communist bloc.

A series of official visits to Western countries (including the US, France, the United Kingdom, and Spain) helped Ceaușescu to present himself as a reforming Communist, pursuing an independent foreign policy within the Soviet Bloc. Also he became eager to be seen as an enlightened international statesman, able to mediate in international conflicts and to gain international respect for Romania. Ceaușescu negotiated in international affairs, such as the opening of US relations with China in 1969 and the visit of Egyptian president [[Anwar Sadat]] to Israel in 1977. Romania was one of the few countries in the world to maintain normal diplomatic relations with both Israel and the PLO.
===The 1966 decree===
[[File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1987-0529-029,_Berlin,_Tagung_Warschauer_Pakt,_Gruppenfoto.jpg|thumb|Warsaw pact leaders left to right: [[Gustáv Husák]] of Czechoslovakia, [[Todor Zhivkov]] of Bulgaria, [[Erich Honecker]] of East Germany, [[wikipedia:Mikhail Gorbachev|Mikhail Gorbachev]] of the Soviet Union, Nicolae Ceausescu, [[Wojciech Jaruzelski]] of Poland, [[János Kádár]] of Hungary]]
In 1966, the Ceaușescu regime, in an attempt to boost the country's population, made [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion abortion] illegal, and introduced other policies to reverse the very low birth rate and fertility rate. Mothers of at least five children would be entitled to significant benefits, while mothers of at least ten children were declared ''heroine mothers'' by the Romanian state. Few women ever sought this status; instead, the average Romanian family during the time had two to three children (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Romania Demographics of Romania]). Furthermore, a considerable number of women either died or were maimed during clandestine abortions.

The government also targeted rising [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce divorce] rates and made divorce much more difficult - it was decreed that a marriage could be dissolved only in exceptional cases. By the late 1960s, the population began to swell. In turn, a new problem was created by child abandonment, which swelled the orphanage population (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cighid Cighid]). Transfusions of untested blood led to Romania accounting for many of Europe's paediatric [[HIV/AIDS]] cases at the turn of the 21st century despite having a population that only makes up around 3% of Europe's total population.

===July Theses===
Ceaușescu visited the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China People's Republic of China], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea North Korea], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolia Mongolia] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Vietnam North Vietnam] in 1971. He took great interest in the idea of total national transformation as embodied in the programs of North Korea's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche Juche] and China's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution Cultural Revolution]. He was also inspired by the [[Cult of personality|personality cults]] of North Korea's [[Kim Il-Sung|Kim Il-sung]] and China's [[Mao Zedong]]. Shortly after returning home, he began to emulate North Korea's system. North Korean books on [[Juche]] were translated into Romanian and widely distributed in the country.

On 6 July 1971, he delivered a speech before the Executive Committee of the PCR. This quasi-[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoism Maoist] speech, which came to be known as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Theses July Theses], contained seventeen proposals. Among these were: continuous growth in the "leading role" of the Party; improvement of Party education and of mass political action; youth participation on large construction projects as part of their "patriotic work"; an intensification of political-ideological education in schools and universities, as well as in children's, youth and student organizations; and an expansion of political propaganda, orienting radio and television shows to this end, as well as publishing houses, theatres and cinemas, opera, ballet, artists' unions, promoting a "militant, revolutionary" character in artistic productions. The liberalisation of 1965 was condemned and an index of banned books and authors was re-established.

The Theses heralded the beginning of a "mini cultural revolution" in Romania, launching a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Stalinism Neo-Stalinist] offensive against cultural autonomy, reaffirming an ideological basis for literature that, in theory, the Party had hardly abandoned. Although presented in terms of "Socialist Humanism", the Theses in fact marked a return to the strict guidelines of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Realism Socialist Realism], and attacks on non-compliant intellectuals. Strict ideological conformity in the humanities and social sciences was demanded. Competence and aesthetics were to be replaced by ideology; professionals were to be replaced by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agitprop agitators]; and culture was once again to become an instrument for political-ideological propaganda and hardline measures.

In 1974, Ceaușescu became President of the Socialist Republic of Romania, further consolidating his power. He continued to follow an independent policy in foreign relations—for example, in 1984, Romania was one of only three communist states (the others being the People's Republic of China, and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Federal_Republic_of_Yugoslavia Yugoslavia]) to take part in the American-organized [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Summer_Olympics 1984 Summer Olympics] in Los Angeles.

Also, the Socialist Republic of Romania was the first of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_bloc Eastern bloc] nations to have official relations with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_bloc Western bloc] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Community European Community]: an agreement including Romania in the Community's Generalised System of Preferences was signed in 1974 and an Agreement on Industrial Products was signed in 1980. On 4 April 1975, Ceaușescu visited [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan Japan] and met with [[Emperor Hirohito]].

===Pacepa defection===
In 1978, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Mihai_Pacepa Ion Mihai Pacepa], a senior member of the Romanian political police ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securitate Securitate]), defected to the United States. A 2-star general, he was the highest ranking defector from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Bloc Eastern Bloc] during the [[Cold War]]. His defection was a powerful blow against the regime, forcing Ceaușescu to overhaul the architecture of the Securitate. Pacepa's 1986 book, ''Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief'' , claims to expose details of Ceaușescu's regime, such as massive spying on American industry and elaborate efforts to rally Western political support.

===Foreign debt===
Ceaușescu's political independence from the Soviet Union and his protest against the invasion of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia] in 1968 drew the interest of Western powers, whose governments briefly believed that he was an anti-Soviet maverick and hoped to create a schism in the Warsaw Pact by funding him. Ceaușescu did not realise that the funding was not always favorable. Ceaușescu was able to borrow heavily (more than $13 billion) from the West to finance economic development programs, but these loans ultimately devastated the country's finances. In an attempt to correct this, Ceaușescu decided to repay Romania's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_debt foreign debts]. He organised a referendum and managed to change the constitution, adding a clause that barred Romania from taking foreign loans in the future. The referendum yielded a nearly unanimous "yes" vote.

In the 1980s, Ceaușescu ordered the export of much of the country's agricultural and industrial production in order to repay its debts. The resulting domestic shortages made the everyday life of Romanians a fight for survival as food rationing was introduced and heating, gas and electricity blackouts became the rule. During the 1980s, there was a steady decrease in the Romanian population's standard of living, especially in the availability and quality of food and general goods in stores. During this time, Ceaușescu shut down all radio stations outside of the capital, and limited television to one channel broadcasting only two hours a day. The official explanation was that the country was paying its debts and people accepted the suffering, believing it to be for a short time only and for the ultimate good.

The debt was fully paid in the summer of 1989, shortly before Ceaușescu was overthrown, but heavy exports continued until the revolution in December