During our recent trip to Albania as guests of Albania’s ambassador to the United States, Dr. Fatos Tarifa, my wife and I had the unique opportunity to traverse much of the Albanian Adriatic coast onboard an Albanian naval vessel provided for our use by the country’s defense minister, Pandeli Majko. Also, Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano flew to the south of the country to have dinner with us and discuss U.S.-Albanian relations and Albania’s NATO aspirations. A few days prior to our arrival in Albania, an article I wrote on Albania was published in The Wall Street Journal European Edition. My initial interest dated back to my master’s Thesis on Albania at Wake Forest University.
Albania –– one of Europe’s most backward places –– is virtually starting from scratch in terms of democratic government and free-market economics. Albania shares with Romania and other Balkan countries a history dating back to Ottoman Turkish days in which corruption and bribery are widespread. Nevertheless, the current government in Tirana is struggling to improve its image, U.S.-Albanian relations and its prospects for eventual entry into NATO. It has been an enthusiastic backer of the United States in Iraq and has provided troops to the allied cause. Additionally, Albania has offered military bases on its soil to the United States. Our Albanian naval hosts pointed out to us along the southern coast one possible base the United States could use.
Albania suffered under the longest-running Stalinist regime in Europe, that of the communist dictator Enver Hoxha from 1944 to 1985. During our recent visit to Albania in July and August, we were reminded of another Balkan country, Romania, where we spent six years of our lives.
Romania is better known to Americans because of the capture and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu on Christmas Day 1989.
Reflecting on the days I served as the U.S. Ambassador to Romania from 1981 to 1985, it is not at all strange to recognize Ceausescu’s close ties to radical Arab rulers as well as to Kim Il Sung (the father of the current King Jong Il) of North Korea. In fact, it is generally believed that after 1985, the only state leaders Ceausescu could count on as friends were Kim Il Sung, Fidel Castro, Moammar Qaddafi and Saddam Hussein.
The parallel between the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu and the demise of Saddam Hussein’s regime was noted by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other observers. Upon the fall of Baghdad and of the big Saddam Hussein statue, Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing on April 9, 2003 that “Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed brutal dictators.” An item in The Wall Street Journal of October 22, 2002 was titled “Saddam Ceausescu?”
Saddam Hussein and Nicolae Ceausescu shared the following facts: Both controlled their countries for 24 years; each of them had sons who held high positions in the government and were equally hated by the people; both rulers demanded veneration by the people –– in Hussein’s case with statues and paintings and in Ceausescu’s case, signs, books, stamps and paintings; each liked to use guns. Ceausescu used Romania’s wealth to construct the second largest building in the world, while Hussein had lavish palaces built all over Iraq. And Romania and Iraq both produced oil and gas.
Ceausescu, although paranoid about his own security, found time to make many state visits. The ones that apparently made the biggest impact on him were his visits to Libya, Iraq and North Korea. Saddam Hussein hosted his friend Ceausescu in Baghdad during June 1982. Ceausescu and Hussein got along famously and concluded several bilateral agreements.
After his trip to Pyongyang, Ceausescu made it clear that mass devotion to him should parallel that in North Korea and that grandiose monuments should be constructed to commemorate his leadership and greatness. Hence the Palace of the People on the Victory of Socialism Bouvelard remains today as a testament to the madman’s grandiose schemes. At least it is now functionally used for different purposes, including housing the parliament of Romania.
During my tenure as U.S. Ambassador to Romania, many radical Arab leaders visited Bucharest, including Yasser Arafat and Moammar Qaddafi. And one of Ceausescu’s favorite pastimes was hunting bears. During one of the visits to Romania by an Arab leader, Ceausescu almost accidentally killed his guest instead of the bears.
Ceausescu, who was not that good of a marksman, once was credited with shooting six bears when he actually only shot four times. So anxious were his subjects and bear handlers to make sure he got his trophies and had success that the bears (which were fattened for the purpose) would literally be pushed out in front of his path to make sure he got them. And if he missed, other, more professional marksmen would shoot them but give the credit to Ceausescu.
Ceausescu, who considered himself a great world leader in the style of Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia, provided a haven for radical Arab terrorists and openly welcomed the influx of students to Romania’s universities from the Middle East. Ceausescu’s reign of terror, torture, murder and destruction is now better known to people in the West.
And whether weapons of mass destruction are uncovered or not in Iraq, most Americans know and appreciate that Saddam Hussein’s removal was an advance for the cause of freedom (and perhaps democracy) in the Middle East. To liberate a people like the Iraqis –– living between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where the first civilizations emerged in the land of Sumer –– is something for which the American people and military can justly be proud.
And this fact should not be diminished by the daunting task that lies ahead for the United States and perhaps ultimately its allies or international organizations. The process of democratization in Romania and Russia, for examples, is turning out to be long and difficult. And the process in Iraq should by all indications be even more challenging but necessary.
This fall, David Funderburk will teach a course in U.S Foreign Relations: Past, Present and Future course at Sandhills Community College. Topics will include U.S. foreign policy and diplomacy, protocol, globalization, international relations and politics, national security and defense policy, and the United States and Europe in the new century. The fundamentals of foreign affairs and the sources and makers of foreign policy will be discussed as well as the current issues in U.S. foreign policy. Guest lecturers who are current or former ambassadors, foreign service officers, congressmen and intelligence officials will be utilized to highlight topics. Efforts will be made to draw on the instructor’s experiences as ambassador, congressman, Fulbright exchange student, and on his ongoing ties to Congress and the foreign policy-making apparatus and process.
Contact David Funderburk at ambromdf@aol.com.
