Ready to Fight

The country in the dangerous position of being the most likely Soviet bloc nation to be invaded next by the Red army is Rumania, which has an 826-mile common border with the U.S.S.R. Rumanian Party Leader Nicolae Ceausescu has championed from the beginning the right of Czechoslovakia's reformers to shape their own socialist destiny. When Prague was overrun, he condemned the Soviet attack as "justified by nothing" and defiantly warned a cheering crowd of some 100,000 Rumanians in Bucharest's Republic Square that "tomorrow, perhaps someone will call this rally of ours counterrevolutionary too." Tass was quick to oblige, charging that Rumania, along with Yugoslavia, was "actively" helping "the antisocialist forces in Czechoslovakia." There were ominous intelligence reports of a massive deployment of Soviet troops on Rumanian borders, maneuvering in the same fashion as those that jumped into Czechoslovakia.

Rumania seemed outwardly calm, but both government and people grew gnawingly uneasy over Russian intentions. On Monday, a gleaming black Jaguar Mark X pulled up to the broad steps of Bucharest's imposing Central Committee building. A brisk little man in a dark suit climbed alone into the back seat. It was Ceausescu, off to the industrial center of Brasov to address factory workers. He was on the move throughout the country each day last week in a skillful and seemingly remarkably successful campaign to rally his people behind him in preparation for a possible clash with the Soviets.

Quiet Preparations. Wherever Ceausescu went, he assured his audiences that Rumania would fight if invaded. Though he did nothing comparable to Tito's open show of force, military preparations were quietly under way. Reserve officers were called up over the weekend for "exercises." In Bucharest, members of a newly formed militia, officially called "patriotic armed detachments of workers, peasants and intellectuals, defenders of the independence of the country," were issued guns and drilled briskly. Responding to reported shifts of Bulgarian armored units to the Danube River border, the Rumanians moved tanks within striking distance of the bridge at Giurgiu--a high, mile-long span that carries a vital road crossing the 367-mile frontier.

In this crisis, Ceausescu has become leader of the country in spirit as well as in title. Rumanians are clearly satisfied that the party leadership has refused to knuckle under. Ceausescu thus has accomplished in Rumania something like what Dubcek earlier achieved in Czechoslovakia: the party has acquired its first genuinely widespread popularity. The Czechoslovak ambassador in Bucharest has a fat file containing the names of local families who have volunteered to take in stranded Czechs. A Rumanian writer who spent seven years in jail for organizing a demonstration in support of the rebel Hungarians in 1956 reported that scores of people are now joining the party--including many who were previously opposed to it and had suffered for refusing to go along.

Little Pretext. "The word freedom," Ceausescu said last week, "can be said in many languages, but it has the same meaning for all people. What is understood is that people must be fully equal, have the right to express their opinion, and be able to take part in the guiding of society in accordance with their capability and knowledge." But he was also careful to assert in his speech at Brasov that "we want to continue our friendly relations with the Soviet Union." In a declaration, the Rumanian Communist executive committee warned: "Nothing must be done at this time to worsen relations between socialist countries. All efforts should be aimed at restoring the climate of trust and friendship between them." Clearly, Ceausescu wanted to give the Kremlin as little pretext as possible for the Soviet juggernaut to strike again.

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