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Romania Command and Control of the Armed Forces
In 1989 Romania had a well-developed centralized system
for
administering and directing its armed forces. The
government had
nominal responsibility for the armed forces, but the PCR
hierarchy
exercised real authority. As PCR general secretary and
chief of
state, Ceausescu also held the powerful positions of
supreme
commander of the armed forces and chairman of the Defense
Council.
Yet there have been periodic indications of friction
between
the professional military and the Ceausescu regime. During
the
1970s and early 1980s, Ceausescu had legitimate reasons to
be
concerned about the potential for a pro-Soviet military
coup
d'état. His policy of remaining independent of the Soviet
Union and
the Warsaw Pact made him more dependent on the loyalty and
reliability of the armed forces to maintain his political
power
than was the case in other communist regimes in Eastern
Europe,
which could rely on Soviet intervention to preserve their
rule
against domestic challenges.
Data as of July 1989
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