A Stinging Attack

Bucharest lay stunned under the sticky assault of an 85DEG heat wave. Couples lounged inertly in the lilac-scented shade of the parks along Boulevard Magheru, sipped raspberry soda out of communal glasses, or took in the desultory lake breeze at the Pescarus Restaurant. Then, with an electric crackle, loudspeakers began to blare, and a tingle ran through the crowd.

The tingle was caused by a four-hour speech from Party Boss Nicolae Ceausescu on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of Rumania's Communist Party. Totally unexpected and unheralded, it was a stinging attack on the Soviet Union that ran the gamut from Lenin through the Stalin era to the current Russian dispute with Red China. Tucked in, as pungently as the garlic in a Rumanian mititei sausage, was the expected plug for "nationalistic Communism" that Ceausescu has made popular in Eastern Europe.

"Human Community." Ceausescu hit hard from the outset. When Rumanian Reds went to Moscow in 1920, he declared, Lenin's Comintern showed "ignorance of the situation in our country," but nonetheless insisted on dictating Rumanian party policy--"though this was the inalienable right of the party itself." That, according to Ceausescu, laid the groundwork for Moscow's sellout of the Rumanian Reds during the early days of World War II--through the expedient of the 1940 Russo-German Non-Aggression Pact.

"Instead of appreciating the correctness of the struggle against the Hitlerites," Ceausescu said bitterly, "the Comintern criticized the Rumanian Communists for their activity against German aggression . . . Rumania, abandoned by all European powers, was actually thrown into the arms of the Hitlerite forces. Resistance to the fascist dictatorship included broad circles among the bourgeois parties and the royal palace."

That was rare Red praise for the non-Communist Rumanians who shared prison cells and torture at the hands of the Iron Guard during World War II. But it tied in neatly with Ceausescu's emphasis on "the nation as a form of human community." With Gaullist gall, Ceausescu also struck out against "military blocs" as "incompatible with the national independence and sovereignty of peoples." Was he suggesting a walkout from the Warsaw Pact?

Secret Huddle. Scarcely had the speech clattered through the Kremlin telex machines when Russia's Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev was airborne for a visit to Bucharest. For three days he huddled with Ceausescu in secret talks. Beyond the expectable communique concerning "subjects of mutual interest," outsiders could only guess at the real substance of the conversations. After all, there were plenty of signs that Rumania was taking an active role in European Communist affairs--a role that could only annoy Moscow. Premier Ion Gheorghe Maurer was in Geneva ostensibly for a "cure"--but possibly in some connection with the talks that Averell Harriman was conducting with the International Red Cross about U.S. prisoners in North Viet Nam. Rumania's First Vice President Emil Bodnaras was huddling with Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi. Then Bodnaras stopped off in Peking to chat with Red China's Premier Chou Enlai, who is scheduled to arrive in Bucharest within the month.

Whatever the spark for the summit, it was one that Brezhnev could not avoid. The Russian leader had been planning to go to Bucharest anyway, but Ceausescu's startling speech must have made the trip much more compelling.

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