A new round of documents revealed by the already famous Wikileaks recently showed former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu shortened his trip to US in 1973 as he was unhappy with the value of loans obtained with the help of the US administration.

Ceausescu was hoping to receive USD 300 million in loans, but got USD 10 million instead, so when he realized he couldn't get more, he cut his trip short, according to Donald Bramante, the first secretary of the US Embassy to Bucharest back in 1973. Ceausescu was supposed to stay from December 4 to December 8, but instead left on December 5.

Bramante explained the cause of the shorter than expected visit via two diplomatic channels to his home country in December 1973, when Nicolae Ceausescu visited the US and met president Richard Nixon. The speeches held by the two presidents on that occasion can be found online here.

Ceausescu was Romania's president between 1967 and 1989. He was also General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party, while the country was under the Communist regime. The regime was overthrown in what was named the revolution in 1989, when both Nicolae and his wife Elena Ceausescu were executed.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Wikimedia Commons)