Traian Nicola is among the Romanian spies who defected during the Ceaușescu regime, requesting political asylum in the USA. The former DIE officer narrated his experience, showing what led him to give up Romania to live in the USA.
Traian Nicola and his book. Source: the volume Good-bye, Dracula, 2012.
Ion Mihai Pacepa, head of Romanian espionage in the “Ceauşescu era”, was the most famous Romanian deserter who requested political asylum in the United States of America.
In the summer of 1978, Pacepa refused to return to Romania during a mission in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and requested political asylum in the “promised land”.
In the following years, other officials of the communist regime, employees of the Directorate of Foreign Intelligence (DIE) followed his example, requesting political asylum in the USA.
DIE officials, unhappy with how they were received in the US
Among them were Nicolae Horodincă, secretary of the Romanian Embassy in the USA, who defected in February 1980, and Traian Nicola, also a secretary at the embassy, but in Islamabad, Pakistan, who defected in November 1979, requesting political asylum in the USA .
Both were young, married with children, and their families were able to stay in the United States. Horodincă was, however, left by his wife, who returned to Romania, while Nicola stayed with his wife and two children in the USA.
In the 70s, over 150 foreign diplomats requested political asylum in the USA, the American press showed, but two of them, the Romanians Traian Nicola and Nicolae Horodincă, were among the few who declared, publicly, that they were dissatisfied with the conditions offered by the American state.
In 1981, two years after their defection, the two former DIE employees were living in Virginia in rented accommodation and complaining to the US media that the promise of a better life in the US had not materialized. They had no work and announced that they were thinking of returning to Romania – where they were already convicted of treason.
“Horodincă says that the CIA deprived him of information, reduced the promised financial aid and did not help him find a job”. reported Reuters journalists in 1981.
Horodincă, the spy abandoned by his wife, even appealed to the Romanian Embassy, hoping that he would be helped. But in Romania, both he and his former colleague from the DIE were sentenced to death, in absentia, the sentences being later changed to 20 years in prison, after the abolition of the death penalty in Romania.
According to the American press, the two officials of the foreign intelligence services claimed that a major reason that led them to desert was the shock from the Security hierarchy, who made their life in the field intolerable.
“Both claimed that they were not recruited as defectors by the US Services, but came on their own,” iinformed the American journalist Willian Beecher in 1981.
“Traian Nicola defected to Pakistan and came with his wife and two children to the US to start a new life. He says he is disillusioned and concerned about the possibility of returning to Romania. Perhaps both he and Horodincă are bluffing in the hope of a better deal. As bad as things are for them in the US, a few years in prison in Romania might be better,” asked the American journalist Willian Beecher, at the end of the story about the two deserters.
Why Traian Nicola deserted
In 2012, Traian Nicola published a memoir, “Good Bye, Dracula! The story of a Transylvanian deserter”, in which he related his experience as an employee of the Directorate of Foreign Intelligence, between 1972 and 1979, and the reasons why he requested political asylum in the USA.
The former diplomat reported that he joined the DIE in the desire to travel outside of Romania. He worked in the Romanian Embassy in Japan from 1974 to 1978, but after returning to the country, the following year, instead of being sent back to Japan, as expected, his bosses sent him to Islamabad (Pakistan).
The Romanian was forced to accept the mission, even though he initially categorically refused it and took his wife and children with him to the capital of the Asian state. The conditions here displeased him, so that shortly after he was installed as the economic attaché of the embassy and, unofficially, head of station, he decided to defect.
In his book, Traian Nicola says that insufficient drinking water, lack of dental and health insurance and lizards flying through his home in Islamabad at night were among his grievances. Also, on one of the days, in the embassy yard, his wife and son saw a black cobra snake, which could have put their lives in danger, and on another day, a rabid dog arrived in the building.
“But the last straw was a little later. One weekend, Ambassador Petrescu told all the employees, including their wives, that they had to do voluntary work, both in the building and in its garden. Everyone came. The women began cleaning the interior, and the men, in view of those from the neighboring embassies, worked in the garden. It looked like something out of the ’50s.” Traian Nicola complained.
He stayed in the US with his family
Shortly after, together with his wife, Nicola made the decision to apply for political asylum in the USA. They applied for asylum in November 1979, but had to wait a few days for the official defection, because in the meantime, the US embassy had been set on fire.
“I actually defected on December 6, 1979. I had a bag with me with some baby clothes and some diapers. In a short time we arrived in the USA, where we live, since then, in the state of Virginia”. recounted Traian Nicola, in his 2012 book.
After several years of struggling to find a stable job, over time, the former diplomat recovered, and in 2008 he retired as vice president of a multinational company.
“So I can definitely say that my defection was worth it. However, the fact that the Government of Romania, a member country of NATO and the European Union, still considers it a sin to flee from a bad political system is sad and confusing“, pointed out Traian Nicola, at the end of his book.
