Lekcja realizmu
Lesson of political realism

The visit of Nicolae Ceaușescu to the United States in April 1978

Summary/Abstract: In April 1978 Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu visited the United States. He met with his counterpart Jimmy Carter and discussed current bilateral and multilateral issues. Romanian agenda for that visit was to strengthen the coun-try’s independence in the Soviet Bloc and to increase the international recognition of its leader. us agenda was to diversify the Soviet Bloc and to infl uence Roma-nian leadership to orient its internal policy towards respecting the human rights. This point was not reached. us achieved only the goals that could be described as belonging to “political realism”. Ceaușescu was not open for any idealistic prin-ciples and avoided the human rights topics. It was the last visit in the us of any leader of the Soviet Bloc countries before Gorbachev came to power.

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