Ion Mihai Pacepa (Romanian pronunciation: [iˈon miˈhaj paˈt͡ʃepa]; 28 October 1928 – 14 February 2021) was a Romanian lieutenant general in the Securitate, the secret police of the Socialist Republic of Romania, who defected to the United States in July 1978 following President Jimmy Carter's approval of his request for political asylum.
Pacepa was the highest-ranking defector from the former Eastern Bloc, and wrote books and articles on the inner workings of Communist intelligence services. His best-known works include Red Horizons, Programmed to Kill, and Disinformation. His accounts have been influential in interpretations of the Ceaușescu regime and Soviet-bloc intelligence, although scholars have cautioned that some of his claims, particularly reconstructed conversations and allegations not independently corroborated, should not be accepted uncritically.
Pacepa was also a columnist for the conservative website PJ Media. He wrote articles for The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, The Washington Times, FrontPage Magazine, and WorldNetDaily.
At the time of his defection, Pacepa simultaneously had the rank of adviser to President Nicolae Ceaușescu, acting chief of his foreign intelligence service, and a parliamentary undersecretary at Romania's Ministry of Interior. Subsequently, he cooperated with the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for more than a decade. The CIA described his cooperation as "an important and unique contribution to the United States".
Activity in Romanian intelligence
Pacepa's father (born in 1893) was raised in Alba Iulia, in Transylvania, where he worked in his father's small kitchenware factory. In 1920, he moved to Bucharest and worked for the local branch of the American automobile company General Motors. Pacepa was born in Bucharest in 1928 and studied industrial chemistry at the Politehnica University of Bucharest between 1947 and 1951. Shortly before graduation, he was recruited by the Securitate and received his engineering degree four years later. He was initially assigned to the Directorate of Counter-sabotage and in 1955 was transferred to the Directorate of Foreign Intelligence.
In 1957, Pacepa was appointed head of the Romanian intelligence station in Frankfurt, West Germany, where he served for two years. In October 1959, Interior Minister Alexandru Drăghici appointed him head of the newly established industrial espionage department, known as S&T (Știință și Tehnologie, "science and technology"), within Directorate I. Pacepa remained involved in Romanian industrial espionage until his defection in 1978. According to Pacepa, his intelligence work contributed to the establishment of Romania's automobile industry and to the development of its microelectronics, polymer and antibiotic industries. From 1972 until his defection, Pacepa also served as an adviser to President Nicolae Ceaușescu on industrial and technological development and as deputy chief of Romania's foreign intelligence service.
Pacepa defected in July 1978 while on an official trip to West Germany. He entered the US Embassy in Bonn, where he requested political asylum, and was subsequently flown secretly to the United States aboard a US military aircraft.
Pacepa later said that his decision to defect was prompted by an order from Ceaușescu to arrange the assassination of Noël Bernard, director of the Romanian service of Radio Free Europe. In a letter to his daughter Dana, published in Le Monde in 1980 and broadcast by Radio Free Europe, Pacepa wrote that he had received the order in July 1978 and decided that he could not carry it out.
Pacepa's defection was a significant setback for Romanian foreign intelligence because of his senior position and knowledge of its personnel and operations. Writing in The American Spectator in 1988, Michael Ledeen claimed that the information supplied by Pacepa resulted in the dismantling of much of Ceaușescu's foreign intelligence apparatus and that Romanian agents were subsequently sent to locate and kill him.
Pacepa was convicted of treason in absentia in Communist Romania and sentenced to death. Accounts published after his defection also claimed that Ceaușescu placed a US$2 million bounty on him and that Yasser Arafat and Muammar Gaddafi each offered an additional $1 million. The Securitate also sought Pacepa's assassination, and Carlos the Jackal was reportedly involved in plans to kill him.
On 7 July 1999, Romania's Supreme Court overturned Pacepa's death sentences and ordered the restoration of property that had been confiscated following his defection. The Romanian government initially declined to implement the ruling, but in December 2004 Pacepa's rank of general was restored. Pacepa thereafter lived in the United States under measures intended to protect his identity and location. He died in 2021.
In 1987, Pacepa published Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief in the United States through Regnery Gateway. The book described the Ceaușescu regime and presented Pacepa's account of its corruption, foreign intelligence activities and the private lives of Nicolae Ceaușescu and Elena Ceaușescu. A Romanian translation printed in the United States was distributed clandestinely in Communist Romania, and in 1988 Red Horizons was serialized by Radio Free Europe, attracting a large audience in Romania.
The book became influential in shaping perceptions of the Ceaușescu regime, although aspects of Pacepa's account have been treated cautiously by scholars. Historian Ashby Crowder noted that Pacepa acknowledged reconstructing conversations presented in the book and argued that, although his claims should not be dismissed, they should not be accepted at face value.
Following the Romanian Revolution and the execution of the Ceaușescus in December 1989, Red Horizons was serialized in the Romanian newspaper Adevărul. Pacepa later claimed that many of the accusations made against the Ceaușescus during their trial had been drawn from information contained in Red Horizons. The book was subsequently published in numerous countries. President Ronald Reagan reportedly referred to Red Horizons as his "Bible" for dealing with dictators.
Pacepa subsequently published The Kremlin's Legacy in 1993 and Cartea neagră a Securității (The Black Book of the Securitate) in 1999.
Pacepa co-authored Looming Disaster with Ronald J. Rychlak, a law professor at the University of Mississippi. The book was promoted by WorldNetDaily during the 2016 United States presidential election.
Alleged assassinations by the KGB