who succeeded
Gheorghiu-Dej as party chief after the latter's sudden death in March
1965. A militant nationalist in the Gheorghiu-Dej pattern, Ceausescu
acted quickly after assuming power not only to maintain the political
momentum generated by the new national line but also to more closely
identify the communist leadership and policies with this expression of
traditional national aspiration (see ch. 9).

In April the name of the Romanian Workers' Party was changed to the
Romanian Communist Party, and new organizational measures were adopted
that were intended to broaden the party's popular base. This action was
followed by the adoption of a new constitution, which changed the name
of the country to the Socialist Republic of Romania, a step that
elevated the country to an advanced status in the communist system by
self-proclamation.

In 1967 Ceausescu's position was further strengthened when he assumed
the presidency of the Council of State to become the head of the country
in title as well as in fact. Since that time Romania has maintained a
firm, orthodox communist control pattern in its domestic affairs but has
continued to pursue an independent foreign policy, which has diverged
remarkably, from time to time, from those of the Soviet Union and its
Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw Pact) allies.

Differences have included opposition to the full integration of the
Warsaw Pact military alliance, refusal to joint the Soviet bloc in
condemning Israel after the 1967 Six-Day Arab-Israeli War, and
unilateral establishment of diplomatic relations with the Federal
Republic of Germany (West Germany). Perhaps the strongest position
vis-a-vis the Soviet Union was taken in 1968, when Ceausescu denounced
the so-called Brezhnev Doctrine of limited sovereignty among socialist
nations, which was used by the Soviets to justify the invasion of
Czechoslovakia (see ch. 10).

CHAPTER 3

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND POPULATION

Romania, located in southeastern Europe and usually referred to as one
of the Balkan states, shares land borders with Bulgaria, Yugoslavia,
Hungary, and the Soviet Union and has a shoreline on the Black Sea (see
fig. 1). The interior of the country is a broad plateau almost
surrounded by mountains, which, in turn, are surrounded, except in the
north, by plains. The mountains are not unduly rugged, and their gentle
slopes plus the rolling interior plateau and the arc of lowlands on the
country's peripher