Gheorghiu-Dej: a Reminiscence

...He would not conceal, he said, that Rumania on the whole agreed with Moscow's foreign policy and strongly disagreed with Peking's...

...CHANGE OF THE GUARD IN RUMANIA Gheorghiu-Dej:a Reminiscence By Daniel Schorr "I have spoken to you frankly," said Gheorghe Gheorghiu- Dej, a friendly hand on my shoulder, last September 17, as we stood up from Turkish coffee, brandy and mineral water...

...And since, as one Rumanian official told me, "Our politics is economics," it seemed to me that power had slipped out of the hands of the unsophisticated native son into the hands of the experts-"the guys," in the words of one American observer, "who make the joint run...

...An hour later, at a similar rally on the Rumanian side, the same chant started, and then faded away as Rumanian cheerleaders passed orders through the throng for a new chant: "Dej, Tito Dej, Tito...

...then to return to the Rumanian bank with Tito...

...From the crowd of Yugoslav workers, a chant arose, "Tito, Dej Tito, Dej...

...It was hard, after meeting with Dej, to evoke the appellations of "ruthless,' "shrewd" and "cunning," customarily fixed to him...

...I found none of the sense of command and control that I had experienced in meetings with Khrushchev, Gomulka and Ulbricht...

...When Austrian Vice Chancellor Bruno Pittermann was invited to Bucharest in the first burgeoning of Rumania's opening to the West, a meeting with Dej was scheduled...

...The poised Tito somehow made him look like a country bumpkin...

...But a man who had to be watched to make sure he did not botch up a complex problem...

...It was as though two families were holding a violent quarrel in the presence of the whole neighborhood...

...His on-camera statement, of which he later gave me the text, written in blue pencil in a large, primary-school hand, was one long cliche: " friendly greetings struggle consistently for peace broadening relations with all countries of the world, irrespective of their social, political or economic systems prospects for further developments to the benefit of our two nations...

...There was a conflict in the Socialist world, he said, but he did not believe it wise to put undue emphasis on it...

...In the preliminary negotiations, officials made clear that a free discussion was out of the question...

...It had not been easy to arrange, for Rumanian officials had pointed out that it ran counter to prudent policy to give interviews, and that for Dej to appear on Western television, whatever he might say, was in itself a political act...

...The scantily-educated Communist leader seemed to have a real interest in education...

...The first time that I saw a less self-assured side of his personality came on September 7, when Dej journeyed to the Rumanian-Yugoslav frontier to join President Tito in inaugurating their "Iron Gates" hydro-electric project on the Danube...

...For the head of a regime making its self-confident way, Dej seemed strangely surrounded and shepherded...

...Gravely, Dej agreed that this was a good point...

...With his bushy eyebrows, flashing smile and open face, Dej seemed the complete extrovert, completely in control of a situation that had gone fantastically well for his regime...

...But, though there had been cursory discussion of the Soviet-Chinese problem, there had been no "sensations," at least, not in the ordinary sense...

...On my urgent appeal, it was agreed that he would memorize and not read it...

...With Vice Premier Gaston Marin having recently been in Washington to sign a trade and cultural agreement, I was under no illusion about why precedent was being broken...

...They stood up to signify that the chat was over...

...He brought in Premier Ion Maurer to help with the conversation, as well as his movie-star daughter, Lica, who must be a great character actress, judging from her plain, dumpy appearance...

...I had seen him, next evening, preside with garrulous animation over a reception for 2,000, staying up until 4 A.M...

...Dej met me with a diffidence hardly concealed by his broad smile...

...I said I thought there was a flaw in the parallel-that, in this case, the contenders had such enormous power that their conflict could not be ignored by the "neighborhood...

...A year later Dej sat in a box with American Minister (now Ambassador) William Crawford for a concert by Artur Rubinstein...

...I made the necessary gesture of saying I was presuming too much on his time...

...He walked rapidly past a Yugoslav honor guard until Tito tactfully brought him back to greet the commander of the formation...

...Dej looked up in surprise and said he had set aside the whole morning for me...

...An apocryphal Dej anecdote best explained it...

...I believe that we shall find such an opportunity...

...He shifted uneasily, but never lost his smile as he said, "With pleasure, certainly, certainly...

...His honored Chinese and Soviet guests, unable to circulate for fear of undiplomatic confrontations, began to look frozen with embarrassment (or perhaps boredom), but Dej, glassy-eyed from champagne and fatigue, still rambled on...

...Now, on September 17, I was at the former royal palace to film an interview with the President for a CBS Reports documentary...

...They also had a whispered conversation with him...

...He promised that his Education Minister would compile for me a summary of gains in literacy, a promise which went unfulfilled I remarked on Bucharest's growing role as a center for international gatherings (a congress on soil problems had just ended...

...It was his Premier, Ion Maurer, who was entrusted with dealing with Peking and Moscow...

...It was his economist Vice Premiers who were planning Rumanian economic growth, and reaching out for Western aid...

...When I noted that in politics it is more difficult to agree on definitions, Dej nodded vigorously and said, "These are very wise words.' I said I had been struck, during the August 23 celebration, with the fact that Bucharest was the only Socialist capital today that could assemble representatives from all other Socialist countries-"the Geneva of the Communist world.' Dej seemed delighted with this remark...

...The oversimplified parallel seemed to me to be in startling contrast to the subtlety and sophistication of the Rumanian regime's position...

...His response was enthusiastic...

...This opening should properly introduce some startling posthumous revelations about the maverick of the Communist world who died on March 19, especially since this was his last interview with a Western journalist and, as far as I could gather, his first...

...That would be an exaggeration...

...He wished, he said, that political problems could be treated with the detachment displayed by scientific congresses...

...He seemed to revel in his position, standing between Soviet President Anastas Mikoyan and Chinese Vice-Premier Li Hsien-Nien, chatting with exhilaration, courteously sharing his time between the representatives of rival giants who never spoke to each other...

...I had seen him on the reviewing stand of the great August 23 parade, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Rumania's liberation...

...In technical violation of the no-question agreement, I asked him if he would like to visit the United States...

...I could tell from his gesticulations, at one point, that he was telling an anecdote to Mikoyan...

...Gheorghiu-Dej was a simple, uncomplicated man, at home with a group of Rumanian workers, but out of his depth in complex international issues...

...Dej remarked, a bit ruefully, that he knew Khrushchev was very good at this sort of thing...

...My lasting memory was the unfailing grin, with the note of nervousness behind it, of the Communist agitator facing a complex new world of East-West relations...

...to clink glasses with diplomats from the Communist, Western and uncommitted worlds...

...In the presence of Tito, Dej seemed to lose assurance...

...Chatting with him while lights were adjusted, I noted that he was the fourth Communist party chief I had brought before the camera, the others being Nikita Khrushchev, Wladyslaw Gomulka and Walter Ulbricht...

...television...

...Warmly and with surface ebullience, Dej treated me to a discourse on how far Rumania had come in 20 years, putting great stress on advances in education and the war against illiteracy...

...And now, the native-son Communist, the one-time labor agitator, who had never been in the West save for the 1960 summit session of the United Nations General Assembly, was called upon to make the supreme sacrifice to pragmatism -an appearance on U.S...

...What to me was "sensational" was to find the Rumanian President and Party chief so different, at close range, from the public figure I had been observing for a month-the figure of an exultant, self-confident leader, riding an economic boom and a wave of anti-Russian nationalism...

...The program called for Dej to cross a pontoon bridge to the Yugoslav side for a rally...

...As Dej came out of his office to join his subordinates in an ante-room, he is supposed to have joshed, "All right, fellow opportunists, let us go and meet the Austrians...

...then repeating it to the Chinese...

...this, apparently, led him to warn me against "sensations...

...Ultimately the bystanders would become bored and drift away, and when the contestants realized they had lost their audience, they might decide it was not worth prolonging the argument...

...And I hope that you will not unleash any sensations as a result of our talk...

...Thus, it can be assumed that the triumvirate of Party Chief Nicolae Ceausescu, President Chivu Stoica, and Premier Maurer will not mark any break with previous policy, because the previous policy was already theirs...

...Dej asked to have the tape played back to make sure he had not departed from his planned banality, then invited me into another room for coffee, trailed by a half-dozen officials who took up wary, worried positions around us...

...A figurehead...

...Dej would limit himself to making a prepared statement...

...But the others present obviously had other ideas...

...As he took a breath to address himself to it, a subordinate interrupted with a note...