Ion Mihai Pacepa, the former deputy head of the Romanian Intelligence Service under dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, passed away from Covid-19 on February 14. He was 92 years old.

Ronald J. Rychlak, who worked together with Pacepa on the book Disinformation, made the announcement, quoted by The Epoch Times.

General Pacepa defected to the US in 1978 after requesting asylum in the country while on a mission in Germany. At the time, he was the head of the Presidential House of Romania, according to his biography presented by Humanitas Publishing House. He was the highest-ranking official from the former Soviet Bloc to request asylum in a NATO country. After his defection, he collaborated with the US Government on various operations.

Born in Bucharest in 1928, he became a lieutenant in the secret police Securitate after graduating from the Industrial Chemistry Faculty. After four years, he became head of service in the fourth counter-intelligence department and, starting January 1956, head of the Romanian intelligence station in West Germany. He was first deputy of the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (DIE) between 1966 and 1972 and a security advisor of Ceauşescu between 1972 and 1978. He was also a state secretary with the Interior Affairs Department. He became a lieutenant-general in 1974. 

In 1987, he published Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief, providing an insider's look into the Ceauşescu regime. Among other books, he published in 2009 Faţă în faţă cu generalul Ion Mihai Pacepa (Face to Face with General Ion Mihai Pacepa), at Humanitas Publishing House, the result of the first interview granted, after 31 years to a Romanian journalist - Lucia Hossu Longin.

(Photo: Anghel Pasat/ Agerpres Archive from Wikipedia)

simona@romania-insider.com