222. Editorial Note
On February 24, 1980, Nicolae Ion Horodinca, a Romanian intelligence officer, together with his wife and infant son, drove to a U.S. Army barracks in the Washington area and asked for asylum. The Department informed the Embassy in Bucharest in telegram 50348, February 25, of a February 24 Washington Post article describing the [Page 707] event. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, D800098–0113) Mrs. Horodinca returned to the Romanian Embassy in Washington after her husband’s defection, where she was immediately recalled to Bucharest. In telegram 56600 to Bucharest, March 2, the Department informed the Embassy that after meeting with her, Department and Immigration officials were satisfied that she was returning to Bucharest on her own free will. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P870105–0275) On her way to the airport, however, Mrs. Horodinca collapsed, was taken to a hospital, and subsequently decided to remain in the United States.
On March 4, the Embassy in Bucharest reported in telegram 1749 that Acting Foreign Minister Constantin Oancea had called U.S. Ambassador Rudolph Aggrey to the Foreign Ministry to deliver a démarche decrying U.S. Government actions at the airport and accusing Washington of unduly pressuring Mrs. Horodinca to remain in the United States. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P870105–0256) In telegram 1750 from Bucharest, March 4, Aggrey reported that during his conversation with Oancea, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu had called the Foreign Ministry to transmit a personal message to President Jimmy Carter. Ceausescu’s message issued a personal request to Carter, asking him “to take steps to assure that the Romanian Ambassador and/or another Romanian diplomat be given access to [Mrs. Horodinca] and allowed to speak with her immediately. She should leave the hospital and be brought to Romania immediately. If what we request is accorded we will take no public notice of this incident. If we do not receive a satisfactory reply today we will have to make public all of the pressures that the US exerted upon Mrs. Horodinca as well as other acts of a similar character taken by the U.S.” (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P870105–0251) Romanian Ambassador Nicolae Ionescu met with Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Zbigniew Brzezinski and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance on March 5 to further protest what the Romanian Government saw as U.S. Government actions to force Mrs. Horodinca to change her mind. The Department reported in telegram 59850 to Bucharest, March 5, that both Brzezinski and Vance had stressed to Ionescu that the recent developments were a surprise, that the U.S. Government would respect Mrs. Horodinca’s decision whatever it may be, and that the Romaninan Government should not allow the incident to cloud the otherwise improving relationship between the two countries. (National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P870105–0291)
As a result of Horodinca’s defection, Romanian officials recalled all officers from the United States. The defection also reinforced Romanian perceptions of a diminishing special place in U.S. foreign policy and [Page 708] a belief that the Central Intelligence Agency wanted to sabotage the U.S.-Romanian special relationship. (Intelligence Information Cable, March 25; Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Brzezinski Office File, Country Chron File, Box 45, Romania: 1980) Forwarding the report to Brzezinski on March 28, Stephen Larrabee of the National Security Council Staff, recommended that Washington reduce some of the suspicion by rescheduling Vance’s visit to Bucharest as part of the high-level consultations on which Ceausescu placed great emphasis, and by receiving Deputy Prime Minister Cornel Burtica at the White House during his April visit to Washington. (Ibid.)