Red Horizonsnby Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai PacepanChicago: Regnery GatewaynIt is no surprise that there are annumber of mysteries about this book.nThe author was the deputy director ofnthe Romanian Foreign IntelhgencenService; for reasons that he does notncare to explain, he defected to the USAnin July 1978. Was he a deep-covernAmerican agent? Just before he defected,nhe says, he took up from under thenparquet of his apartment an envelopencontaining his membership card for thenAssociation of Young Friends of thenUSA, issued in 1945, and destroyed it.nHow strange! Was not that just thenmoment when the card might havencome in handy? And fancy keeping itnall those years — even under the parquet—when,nas he makes it clear, everynsenior ofBcial was spying on his peersnon the direct orders of President NicolaenCeausescu. And why wait tennyears before publishing all this flesh-nPeter Benenson is the founder ofnAmnesty International.n32/CHRONICLESnTransylvanian Talesnby Peter Benensonn”Tyrants are always assassinated late;nthat is their great excuse.”n— Ciorannchilling information in a book, when thenghastly practices of the Romanian IntelligencenService were revealed by one ofnhis colleagues in 1984? Qe refuse dentuer, un agent secret roumain revele lesndessous de I’affaire by Matui Haidaen.)nThe author reveals that as a child henwas forced each day by his father (whonworked for a General Motors affiliatenin Bucharest) to learn by heart a wholenpage of that city’s telephone directory.nThis training gave him a photographicnmemory that made him most useful tonCeausescu, and no doubt accountednfor the closeness of their relationship.nHe uses this memory to recount wordby-wordnconversations that happenednten and 20 years ago. If there arencontradictions in the text they may,nperhaps, be ascribed to the Englishlanguagenamanuensis who probably assistednhim. It is greatly to be regrettednthat neither Pacepa nor this assistantnunderstood the principles on whichnsuch a book of memoirs should bencompiled; it is neither chronologicalnnor organized around subject matter,njust a stream of recollections, sadlynconfusing despite some fascinating material.nnnThe writer himself compares Ceausescunto Marcos of the Philippines; hensays that both are of the same smallnbuild and have similar facial characteristics,nexcept that Marcos’s skin isnslightly darker. The two dictators havenbeen good friends, as have their wives,nwho are alike in many ways, althoughnElena Ceausescu can in no way rivalnthe good looks of Imelda Marcos.nElena Ceausescu, however, exceedednImelda’s dress collection by having annew garment for every day of the year.nMost offensive of all, Elena Ceausescunposes as an intellectual, a scientist,na chemist, having her books writtennby the Intelligence Service, andndemanding honorary doctorates innwhichever country her long-sufferingnhusband visits. (The Philippines gavenher a degree only after the interventionnof the omnipresent General Ver.)nPacepa also claims that Ceausescunhad salted away, as of ten years ago, nonless than $400 million — some in thensafes of the Romanian IntelligencenService, some in Swiss banks “against anrainy day.” Ceausescu only came tonpower in 1965; if he had plunderednthis sum in 13 years, how much is hisn”nest egg” worth now?n