Cold War USA tolerates "pink" allies

Romania...

Responding to General Secretary of the Communist Party Nicolae Ceaușescu's calculated distancing of Romania from Soviet foreign policy, particularly Romania's continued diplomatic relations with Israel and denunciation of the 1968 Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia, President Richard Nixon paid an official visit to Romania in August 1969. Despite political differences, high-level contacts continued between U.S. and Romanian leaders throughout the decade of the 1970s, culminating in the 1978 state visit to Washington by President and Mrs. Ceaușescu.

In 1972, a consular convention to facilitate protection of citizens and their property in both countries was signed. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) facilities were granted, and Romania became eligible for U.S. Export-Import Bank credits.

A trade agreement signed in April 1975 accorded most favored nation (MFN) status to Romania under section 402 of the Trade Reform Act of 1974 (the Jackson-Vanik amendment that links MFN to a country's performance on emigration). This status was renewed yearly after congressional review of a presidential determination that Romania was making progress toward freedom of emigration.

Kind of ironic how US foreign policy was so anti-Communist in its orientation, but when it did ally with Communist regimes, it went for the absolute worst specimens(eg. Cultural Revolution China, Romania, the Khmer Rouge), the guys who did stuff that Joe McCarthy couldn't have imagined even in his worst nightmare.

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TinyTartar

Banned
Romania...



Kind of ironic how US foreign policy was so anti-Communist in its orientation, but when it did ally with Communist regimes, it went for the absolute worst specimens(eg. Cultural Revolution China, Romania, the Khmer Rouge), the guys who did stuff that Joe McCarthy couldn't have imagined even in his worst nightmare.

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It goes back to anti-Sovietism. Albania under Hoxha was truly awful, but had there been more of a chance for opening, it would have been taken. Communist countries that were anti-Soviet, like Tito's Yugoslavia and Maoist China, were targets for a new leaf in relations. Countries that were awful like North Korea or pre-split Communist China were not targets for that new leaf because they were too pro-Soviet.

Soviet imperialism was successful under Stalin because it realized that might makes right and ideology can come later; this led to domination on grounds of power, and it worked. Soviet Imperialism under his successors was not nearly as successful because they expected loyalty from people who were nuts. You can't reason with someone like Mao or Hoxha; their self interest will win out; ideologically, they did not seem to grasp this. When they did use force, it was in a blundering ham fisted manner that got a lot of press headlines and did little to actually improve the political situation, leading to unruly members of their sphere.
 
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