e divided. In this tradition Romania aligns itself
without significant reservation with the Warsaw Pact.

The military establishment consists of ground, naval, air and air
defense, and frontier forces. They are administered by a defense
ministry, which in turn is responsible to the chief of state. At topmost
policy levels, party leaders are interwoven into the controlling group.
Political education throughout the forces is supervised by a directorate
of the ministry, but the directorate is responsible to the Romanian
Communist Party.

Military service has become a national tradition, although the tradition
is based largely on the continuing existence of sizable armed forces.
The people accept the military establishment willingly enough even
though conscription removes a great part of the young male population
from the labor force for periods of from sixteen to twenty-four months.
The military services are not an overwhelming financial burden and, in
local terms, the forces undoubtedly have value to the regime. They
support it and give it an appearance of power. Also, the discipline and
political indoctrination given the conscripts during their military
service is considered beneficial to them and to the country.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The armed forces have been dependent on some major power for arms supply
during most of the country's independent history. Equipment and
assistance were furnished by Germany between 1870 and 1916. During that
time, although the country's population was hardly more than 10 million,
with German help it was able to support a large army. It fielded about
500,000 men against Bulgaria in 1913 during the Second Balkan War, for
example. In 1916 Romania joined the World War I Allies, but its forces
were defeated within a few months and were idled until a few days before
the armistice in November 1918. From then until just before World War II
they were assisted by France and, to a lesser degree by Great Britain
(see ch. 2).

Because of the political situation at the time, Romania was unable to
offer resistance when the Soviet Union, by terms of its agreement with
Germany in 1939, annexed Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. In June 1941,
however when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Romania joined the
Germans. Its forces fought the Soviets until 1944 but, after the battle
for Stalingrad in 1943, they became too war weary to perform at their
best. In 1944, as the Germans were being pushed westw