OUR
COMMENT.
Almost
27 years have passed since the counterrevolutionary events in Romania
and the execution of Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena. On
December 25, 1989, after a hasty, parody trial before a Kangaroo
court, the Ceausescu couple were executed in Targoviste, north of
Bucharest. According to the head of the firing squad, Nicolae
Ceaușescu sang "The
Internationale"
while being led up against the wall. The
execution of Ceausescu marked the end of the counter-revolutionary
overthrow of Socialism in Romania and the beginning of a “new
order” in the country.
Ceausescu
is an exemplary case of how western media manipulate the image of a
politician. When, for example, Romania did not participate in the
intervention of the Warsaw Pact armies in Czechoslovakia in 1968, the
West praised Ceausescu as a “good pal” within the eastern bloc.
When Romania accepted to participate in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympiad
(which was boycotted by the other Socialist countries), western media
again praised Nicolae Ceausescu for his “disobedience towards
Moscow”. However, this changed when the Romanian leader distanced
himself from Gorbachev's counter-revolutionary line of “compromise”
with Imperialism. Then, the directed western media propaganda started
to present Ceausescu as the “Dracula”, demonizing his leadership.
The “good guy” of the eastern bloc rapidly transformed into a
“brutal dictator” in the eyes of the so-called international
community.