WEBVTT - Part Three: Nicolae Ceaușescu: The Dracula of Being A Dick 0:00:01.240 --> 0:00:08.000 You can do your your your job now, Robert h Well, 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:11.920 I did my job, Sophie. I introduced the podcast. How 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:15.480 are we feeling? Everybody good? We all have we all 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:19.000 have newly hot bev's. We're doing great. Yeah, we got 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:22.280 a hot bev uh and we've got a hot bud 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:27.280 Jeff May. Jeff, I got a bone to pick with you. Yeah, 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.800 what what is that bone? Well, Jeff, at the end 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:32.640 of last episode, I said, as I was asking you 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:35.600 to introduce your plug doubles, where did you come from? 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.360 Where did you go? Where did you come from? And 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.840 then I had to say Cotton eight, Jeff, which made 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:44.600 me sad because if your name had just been Joe. 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:50.599 You see what I'm saying here, Jeff, that worriginal enough 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:54.360 to do that, But they just missed Joseph. It's like 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:56.880 the one white guy name that nobody in my family 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:01.160 has let them know. They fucked up my joke. Mm hmm, 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:06.120 I'm sorry, honestly, like that's on my dad. Yeah. Well, 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.560 I'm I'm living now, Jeff. What I'm not living at 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:12.640 is you for being here to continue talking about Nikolai 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.920 Cechesco with me. How are you? There's no place I'd 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.760 rather be than right here talking about tyrannical despots. Wow, 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.920 that's a lie, but it's a nice lie. Um, a 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:26.480 sweet lie, Jeff, Thank you for thank you for that, 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:30.040 for that friendly lie. We used to call those white lies, 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:33.160 but now I'm going to call them Jeff May lies. 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.840 I mean, the name Jeff May is pretty synonymous with 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:40.000 the word white, so I feel like it does work 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:48.880 either way. Jeff May of the West estimate, h, we 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.400 gotta find more uses for you to do your your 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:55.600 your front American Northeast accent. Jeff, that was perfect. Um, 0:01:57.720 --> 0:01:59.800 I gotta, I gotta do a Vanderbilt. But before we 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:04.520 do a Vanderbilt, let's talk about a guy who probably 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.760 had an accent like the only, the only Romanian accent 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:09.800 that I know how to do as a Dracula accent. 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:13.040 And I do feel like that would be offensive. Although Jeff, No, 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:17.440 we are about to start by talking about how Chowchescu 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:22.400 used Dracula Um and other heroes from Romania's passed um 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:24.680 in order to uh to to make the case as 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.400 to why he and I'm gonna quote here from an 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.680 article on the cult of Chaochescu by The New York 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:33.200 Times In Tirgo Vista's History Museum, there is a new 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:37.760 exhibition of Romanian heroes. An enormous portrait of Chowchescu gazes 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.880 down on the busts of Romanian rulers. Among the venerated 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.760 is of lad Dracula, the fifteenth century prince whose cruelties 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:47.280 gave rise to the Dracula Vampire vampire legend. Flanking the 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:51.119 entrance way are huge bronze busts of Decibel, the Dacian king, 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:53.720 and Trajan, the Roman Emperor, who defeated Decibel at a 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.320 great cost in the second century. Could it be that 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:59.520 Chowchescu is casting himself not only as a Romanian emperor, 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:01.840 but as a Roman one as well. After all, he 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:04.799 carried a jeweled royal mace at his nineteen seventy four 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:08.360 induction as President Roman Emperor. I had snorted, it's a 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.360 little late to do jeweled mace. Do you think seventy 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:16.160 four you think that's late for a jeweled mace? Yeah? Yeah, 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:19.840 Like if my dad was alive for it. I feel 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.800 like you shouldn't have, like shouldn't have a jeweled mace. 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:25.360 But I do love the idea of like, I vant 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:30.120 to rehabilitate your legacy. Yeah, I we're talking about Sachku 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:31.919 here as we should on the idea of having a 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:34.960 jeweled mace at your coronation. But the British royal families 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.160 over there sweating in a corner being like, don't bring 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.280 us up, don't bring us up. We got a fucking 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.000 room full of jeweled mace is don't let anybody tell. 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:43.640 They're like, you don't even want to know where we 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:49.720 got these jewels. Yeah, um, so yeah, it's it's very funny. Um. 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.040 There's a line in that article where the Guide is like, no, 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:53.920 he doesn't think he's a Roman emperor. He thinks he's 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.000 a god. Uh. And the New York Times reporters like, 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:58.760 what do you mean? And the Guide is like, in 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:02.000 the newspapers they've printed poems about Chesko describing him as 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:06.160 a dimmi gut. Yeah. Um, not too far off from 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.320 what Roman emperor's thoughts. So then were yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.200 it's it's good. So I mean you could say, yeah, 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:16.640 he's just he's honoring his his cultural heritage, Um, all 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:20.000 of our cultural heritage. As an Italian, Um, I understand 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.120 the need to believe that some guy who was born 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.839 into a job is literally divine. It's easier than thinking 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:31.760 yeah exactly, yeah, thank you, um the god of my people. 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.839 So why is Mario Italian? What is it? What is 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:37.760 it about? What is it? What? What? What is it 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.520 about Japanese game designers that made him think? Like, well, 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.840 you got a plumber? What what what's the natural natural 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.240 ethnicity for a plumber who fights mushroom people? Wasn't he 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:52.160 the superintendent of of the Nintendo of America? Like he 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:56.279 was like his character was created to basically he was. 0:04:56.480 --> 0:05:01.400 He was like some guy that they knew they designed 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.560 him that way. Okay, well that that is less magical 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:06.640 than I had hoped it was. Yeah, but I mean, 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:09.720 you know, it's the Japanese and the Italian's deep rooted 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.400 history all the way back to roughly trying not to 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:20.920 go too deep into this new Chris Pratt playing Mario situation. 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.360 That's my question. When I had a real voice, I 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:25.039 was like, get this ship out of here. If you're 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.760 not being an offensive Italian stereotype, you're not my Mario. Yeah, 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:33.880 that is what Bob, Bob Hoskins played an incredible Mario. 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:40.440 It's like, you know, who's a great Mario, that Cockney actor. Yeah, 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:46.680 so we're back talking about Romania um and kind of 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.720 occasionally Italy. Um. But yeah, so Cesco when we kind 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.679 of leave left off, he's he's he's gotten himself into power, 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:57.560 he's establishing his cult of personality, and he's he's he's 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.320 doing some some terrible stuff like band abortion um. And 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.359 he's starting to do some dumb stuff like trying to 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:07.480 turn Romania into the television making capital of Europe. Um. 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.760 But broadly speaking, things are going okay. And one of 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:13.039 the thit reasons things are going okay is because he 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:16.000 does not have enough money yet to realize all of 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:19.560 his visions of turning the entire country into a giant factory. 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:22.000 And in order to get that kind of money, Church 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.800 knows he's gonna need some loans. Now, the Soviet Union 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.680 does not hit. One of the funny things about this 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.640 is for all of the mismanagement the USSR was guilty of, 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:35.080 they're totally right here where they're like, no, man, just 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.600 just keep growing food. They're making TVs probably isn't gonna 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.320 work out for Romania, and it doesn't. Um, So they're 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:45.479 not going to give Romania the resources that Ski thinks 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.839 they need in order to become this manufacturing capital of Europe. 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:51.440 But you know who does have a lot of money 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.159 and he's really willing to use it on stupid shit. 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:59.120 The United States of America. Now that's our thing. That 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:00.960 is our thing. We will put a lot of money 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:05.000 into some very dumb ship because we have infinity dollars. Now, 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.880 the problem with this is that the United States is 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:12.200 the heart, the beating heart of global capitalism, and Romania is, 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.840 in theory, a stalinist state, right, a state that's based 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.400 on at least quasi stalinist policies. So the fact that 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:23.520 Chowchesco decides to get in bed with the US seems 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.680 like a bad I like something that couldn't possibly work. 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:29.000 It's actually going to be one of the most successful 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:31.480 things that he does. But the first stage of his 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:34.600 plot to get in bed with Lady Liberty comes courtesy 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.280 of Lady Liberty's pimp at the time, a fellow that 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.640 you might have heard about, a friend of the pod, 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:45.120 Richard Millhouse Nixon. Now we love him, We love old 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.920 tricky Dick. Choochesco actually is going to get along very 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:52.520 well with with with old Dick Nixon. Now nineteen sixties seven, 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:54.960 which is when they meet, is kind of an awkward 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:58.600 time for for for Richard Nixon. He had finished being 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.760 vice president quite a y hile ago, and he's sort 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.720 of in the term that politics political writers would use 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:07.480 at the time is that he's in like the wilderness 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:09.840 right now, right where he's kind of he doesn't have 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.600 this like he doesn't have like a super prominent role, 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:15.040 but he's trying to get back into politics, right He's 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:17.920 trying to, you know, he wants to become president. Um, 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.080 he's had a couple of scandals. He's in this kind 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.040 of very messy place, um, and he's trying to he 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.720 knows that he wants to like kind of recapture some 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.960 of his glory days in order to put himself back 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.640 on the political limelights that he can run and and 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:37.559 win the Republican nod for president. Now. One of the 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.800 biggest moments from his career previously to this had been 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.600 this very highly publicized kitchen table debate that he'd had 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.400 with Nikita Khrushchev. So Khrushchev comes to power after Stalin, 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:50.840 there's kind of this falling of a little bit in 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:54.280 the Cold War. Nixon has what most people would consider 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:58.760 to be pretty unimpeachable anti communist Cold warrior credentials. So 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:04.559 referring to Richard Nixon is anything unimpeachable is also very it. 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:08.160 It is very and yeah, perhaps an ironic term to 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:11.320 use for him, um, but he he So he meets 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.400 up with Kruschev and they have this like very famous debate. 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:16.520 That is, it's one of these things that kind of 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.360 turns him, makes him look like a statesman, and so 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:21.520 as he's kind of in this awkward position, he's like, well, 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:23.560 what if I do that again? So he he gets in, 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:25.880 He gets in a fucking plane charter is a flight, 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.600 and he starts traveling through the USSR. He goes to 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:32.479 Moscow and he tries to set up another debate with Krushchev, 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:35.360 but the Soviets are like, well that worked out for us, 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.280 but now the Cold War is like getting gnarlier again, 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:40.680 and we really it doesn't benefit us at all to 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:44.880 help Richard Nixon become the Republican presidential candidate. So no, 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:47.560 we're not going to do this. Um. And he kind 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:51.920 of dick kind of awkwardly mopes around Eastern Europe until 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.760 he finds a communist leader who would be absolutely thrilled 0:09:55.840 --> 0:10:00.400 to be his buddy. And that communist leader is Nikki Chauchesco. Now, 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.440 the first meeting between the two men is mainly a 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.360 photo op for Nixon, but it helps to soften his 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.000 image as this hardline cold warrior, and it makes him 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:11.760 look more like a statesman, Right, that's what Dick wants 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.280 to look like a serious politician, is Yeah. And the 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.080 big the big thing about that is obviously that he 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:22.360 has built up a very good photo opportunity life like Nixon. 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:25.160 For all of the all of the bumbling that that 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.640 man has done throughout his entire career, I'm not giving 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:32.800 up checkers and all this stuff. Like he went to China, 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:35.720 like yeah, yeah, and this is kind of the start 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:37.440 of that, right, because I mean you could say Kruz 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.040 Jeff was kind of the start of that. But it's 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.160 interesting as much of like this anti Soviet hardliner, as 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:45.680 he has a reputation for being, a lot of his 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:50.040 career gets made by hanging out with communists. Um, so 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.240 that's kind of cool. Um at least it's well, it's 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.120 actually gonna be disastrous for a lot of people, um, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:11:01.400 but it's it's uh, we'll call it a mixed bag. Um, 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:04.240 So it works out really well though for Nixon. It 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.679 makes him look, you know, like a statesman. And it's 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.280 gonna work out really well for chaw Chessco because it's 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:11.439 it's going to give him a connection to the man 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.000 who's about to be the president of the United States. 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:18.360 And Richard Nixon you wouldn't call him a great friend, 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:23.360 but he does remember when people are useful to him. Right. Um, 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.880 there's a I don't know, loyalty is the wrong word, 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:28.520 but he is going to have like a soft spot 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:30.960 for chow Chessco after this, and he's going to help 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:36.240 out the dictator of Romania in whatever way that he can. Um. Now, 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.160 this does a couple of things for Chowchesco besides just 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.640 sort of making him look like, oh maybe this is 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:43.360 maybe this this guy is actually not as much of 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.360 a hardline communist as we've been led to believe. The 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:48.960 first thing it does outside of that is it it's 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.160 it's him throwing a middle finger at Moscow, right. The 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.320 Soviets don't want him to do this. And one of 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:57.400 the other things that's happening in this period, this is 0:11:57.440 --> 0:11:59.800 when you have that big Sino Soviet split, So there's 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.160 really like soldiers killing each other Chinese and and and 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:05.840 Soviet soldiers killing each other on like the borders of 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:08.840 both countries. Right, this is a really nasty time, and 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.920 this conflict is escalating, and the Soviet Union basically asks 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:17.080 chow Chesscu to stand with them against the People's Republic 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:18.839 of China and he's like, no, I'm not going to 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:20.560 do that. You know, I'm not going to actually take 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:22.720 a side in this Sino Soviet split and the way 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.920 that you want me to. Um. So by doing that 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:28.840 and by having Nixon over, he's kind of provided a 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:32.560 bridge for the Americans where they're like, well, we actually 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:35.280 would really like to be able to communicate and and 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.319 talk and settle things directly with China, and we've had 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:40.880 to do that kind of through the Soviet Union prior 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:43.480 to this. And now there's this guy at chow Chesscu 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.120 who the Chinese, like Mao likes show Chesscu because chow 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.480 Chesscu wouldn't throw down against him with the U. S. 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.959 S r Um and he's already had Nixon over, so 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:55.840 maybe we can work with this guy. Maybe this guy 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:57.480 is going to be our buddy and help us like 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:02.080 smooth out some shit. Um, so this is a you know, 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:04.520 this is a bold move. It's it's risky, but you 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:06.920 have to say this is actually he's going to do 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.280 a lot of stupid things. Most of the things Ciochessco 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.440 does are very dumb. This is good foreign policy. He's 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:16.120 actually playing very intelligently all these kind of powers off 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:21.200 each other for his own benefits. That it's intrigue, yeah, 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:25.959 surprisingly adept at intrigue. Yeah. And it's one of those things. 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.200 If he had never been running the country, if he'd 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:31.800 just been like Romania's head of foreign you know, policy 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:34.839 or something, he might have actually been pretty good at 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:38.240 his job. Um. The problem is that no one actually 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.120 is ever good at the job that he has, which 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.440 is like guy in charge of an entire country down 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:45.600 to the lives of individual people in it. But he's 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.040 pretty good at the foreign policy ship. And he's gonna 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.880 double down on this foreign policy success. In August of 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:55.040 nineteen sixty eight, when Vincent Czechoslovakia provide him with a 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:59.360 golden opportunity. So the checks elect a new first Secretary, 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.280 and czechos a Bakia is a communist state, they elect 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:04.920 a new first Secretary of their party a guy named 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:09.120 Alexander Dubcheck. And dumb Check is a communist, but he 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.960 is a reformer, right, Um, he's and he's very popular 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:15.600 in the West because while he's he's still a comy. 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:19.040 He's this kind of communist who's got more democratic attitudes 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.440 about how things ought to work, and he starts pushing 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:24.360 a raft of reforms that are much more extensive than 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.400 the ones Cho Chessco had offered his own people. Most crucially, 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.800 he's like, maybe we'll have elections again, and hey, maybe 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.640 we'll even let parties run that aren't communist parties. Now, 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.160 the Soviet Union, who has just sent tanks not all 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:42.360 that long ago into Hungary over you know, um an uprising, 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:44.840 they're not going to like this. Uh, this is not 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:49.120 acceptable to them. And Moscow responds by invading Czechoslovakia and 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:52.440 arresting Dubcheck. The force they sinned is made up of 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:56.880 the five Central Warsaw Pact nations. UM. The two countries 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.040 that do not participate in this invasion are Romania and 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:03.400 Yugoslavia because they're seen as unreliable um, and they are 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.600 in fact unreliable for that. I love that where we're 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:11.040 in like obviously Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and we're like, oh man, 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.960 these things don't even exist anymore. Like it's so funny. 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:18.000 It's like we're talking about yeah, yes, but yeah, I 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:20.880 mean we are. You've got Romania still, you know, you 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:25.440 gotta Czech Republic um, but um, yeah, it is, it is. 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:29.240 We are talking about like these ghostly nations. It's interesting 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.960 too because like if you go around, if you travel 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.240 through a lot of Eastern Europe, especially if you travel 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:38.600 through like the Balkans, it's obviously it's not uniform, but 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:40.760 you will run into a lot of people, particularly older 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:43.880 people who are like um, who miss when Tito was 0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:46.280 around and who missed the days of Yugoslavia, which is 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:48.440 not hard to see why when you think about how 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.520 ugly things got as soon as Yugoslavia broke apart, and 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.240 you can find people, particularly in Russia who missed the U. S. 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:56.640 S R. You do not run into a lot of 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:04.320 Romanians who miss ko no no no no no no no. Um. 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.120 Not as common, not nearly as Not to say that, 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:09.960 obviously I'm not trying to like whitewash either the Soviet 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.120 Union or Yugoslavia, but you you you you do run 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:14.760 into people who are like, ah, you know that for 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:16.400 a lot of reasons, there were there were things that 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:18.800 I preferred back then. That does not tend to happen 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:23.800 nearly so often with Chesco in Romania. Um, but what 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:26.000 he is pretty good at is this right here. So 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:31.840 the Soviets invade Czechoslovakia, they arrest this guy, dub check Um, 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:34.120 and they, you know, put an end too this whole 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:36.720 We're gonna try opening shipped up a little bit here. 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:40.120 And Nikolai is in a dangerous position. He does not 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:43.600 have Soviet soldiers in his country. But obviously Romania is 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.240 not gonna win a war with the Soviet Union, right 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:48.880 If the USSR wants to come in and force him out, 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.280 they can do it. And he's just seen they're willing 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:55.280 to do that to the checks Um. So he's not 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:59.400 going to back down over this though. Um. He calculates 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:02.080 kind of act curately that the uss are they've just 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.440 blown a lot of political capital and taken a risk 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:09.720 themselves in occupying Czechoslovakia. They're not gonna want to funk 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.240 with Romania right now, right because they're kind of dealing 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.960 with this ship storm already. So while they're occupying the country. 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.520 He delivers a speech on August twenty one to nineteen 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:20.879 sixty eight in front of a hundred thousand people and 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:23.760 Republic Square in Bucharest, and he's he's it's called the 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.639 Balcony Speech. He's standing on this balcony of this uh 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.439 UM like government building and he addresses this crowd and 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.560 he tells them that the Romanian Communist Party is expressing 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:37.640 full solidarity with the Czech people. He calls Soviet actions 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:39.920 a danger to the peace of Europe, and he condemns 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:43.639 them for forcing their version of socialism on another socialist state. 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:45.640 One of the things he's like is that like, as 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:49.280 socialist states, we should have the freedom to exist whatever 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.040 way we want and to like experiment with policies, and 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.520 the Soviet unions shouldn't be cracking down on that stuff 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:58.440 which is objectively good, right, Like what he he's actually 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.159 taking this is a prince suppold stance, and it's a 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:03.679 risky one for him. Now. He's not taking it because 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:07.199 he's morally opposed to what the USSR is doing so 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:09.600 much as he's taking it because this is going to 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.240 reinforce his popularity with the Americans and the West right, 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:15.880 and it is outrage. It is popular, you have to say, 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.760 it's very popular. In Romania. This is seen as like 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:20.760 the high point of his regime, and it gives a 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:22.840 lot of people reason to be like, oh, you know 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:27.040 this guy actually, you know, maybe maybe we we lucked 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:29.600 out in terms of you know, having this student charge 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:31.879 of the country. He's willing to stand up to the Soviets, 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.960 you know, he's taking a taking this prost stance in 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.360 favor of liberty from the from the U. S. SR. 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:42.880 Maybe maybe we're doing all right. Yeah, yeah, no notes 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.959 on the specific thing. Yeah, and with that we can 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:50.040 put a lid on him. Yeah, that's the end of it. 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:55.560 Rides off into the sunset um like co check. So um, 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.560 he's he's done this thing and these kind of two moves. 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:00.920 He's made this unique place for himself in the world 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.560 of diplomacy. And shortly after there, right around this time, 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.240 Nixon wins election. Yes sixty eight, Nixon wins election and 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:13.000 he takes office. Um, and so now his buddy Richard 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:16.359 is running the United States, and he's just given himself 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:18.800 a really good reason to be trusted by the West. 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.399 So he starts saying, hey, I would like to have 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:24.240 most Favorite Nation trading status right with the U S. 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:26.640 Which is a big deal economically, there's a whole bunch 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.520 of benefits to that, and no communist country had ever 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:33.240 been offered that um. And the US is like, well, funk, 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:35.840 why shouldn't we do this? Right? This guy actually seems 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.600 like he's you know, and obviously we don't care that 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:41.040 he's he's a he's a dictator who's purged his enemies, 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:43.160 he's made a borshit illegal, he's doing all of these 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:45.600 things that are like fucked up in his own country. 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:47.840 But obviously we've never given a shit about. That we 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:51.960 care about is that he's benefiting US foreign policy right now. 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:56.280 So we're going to stand up and start offering him 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:59.960 some shit um. And one of the things that means 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.600 is that, like we do, Romania does eventually get most 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:04.680 Favored Nation trading status. But the other thing it means 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:07.119 that Tricky Dick is is going to start talking to 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:11.080 American business leaders in American banks and being like, yeah, 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.720 you can trust Chessco, you know, invest in his country, 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:20.520 give him some loans. It's gonna trustworthy bron Yeah, as 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:24.000 he's as he is pounding his entire body weight in 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:27.960 vodka on a daily basis and threatening Henry Kissinger. He 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:30.439 is he's letting people. Yetta put her money in Romania. 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.399 It's gonna work out really well long term. Good goodbye. 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:40.199 Who amongst us would not threaten Henry Kissinger given the opportunity. Yeah, Um, 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:46.119 I mean we probably shouldn't go much further down that road, uh, 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:48.800 because I think he still has a secret service detail. 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:53.879 So um. This is also very popular among the Romanian people, 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.000 and catal And Gruya, who's a Romanian journalist, describes people's 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.200 feelings this way, Romanians lived better and they were out 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:03.080 of their president, frustrated by history. They saw in Chaochesco 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:05.280 one of their own who was on equal foot standing 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:07.920 with the world's bigger players. When he condemned the military 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:12.080 intervention in Czechoslovakia, Romanian enthusiasm was spontaneous. This act of 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:15.639 defiance against Moscow brought him the respect of the entire world, 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:20.240 and Silvio Bruckin, another Romanian writer, adds this Chesko was 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.000 a tyrant when it came to politics and economic disaster, 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:25.920 but in his foreign policy he had a spark of genius. 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:29.399 Although uneducated, he was smart, a wily peasant sort of smart, 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:32.720 and uh, you know it is the kind of one 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:35.040 thing that's interesting is Choochesco is this little guy. He 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.600 doesn't have he never has anyone backing him up earlier 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:40.320 in his career. He's entirely on his own, and so 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:43.639 he's really good at kind of running in between the 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:48.600 feet of these more powerful figures in Romanian politics. Yeah, yeah, 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:51.280 and that's what he's doing. Like you can see why 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:54.480 his background makes him good at this specific job, because 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.840 Romania is in this really awkward position geographically, and it's 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:00.600