Construirea noilor relații româno-americane la mijlocul Războiului Rece. Vizite ale unor înalți demnitari români în SUA (1960-1964)
Building the New Romanian-American Relations in the Middle of the Cold War: Visits of High-Ranking Romanian Officials to the United States (1960-1964)

Summary/Abstract: The spectacular improvement of Romanian-American relations beginning in 1960 had multiple causes, connected both to decisions made by the leadership of the Romanian Workers’ Party and to political fluctuations in the international environment. As early as the time of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej strongly signalled his desire to develop relations with the United States. For a while this was ignored, but gradually Romania became a special case in Eastern Europe – one worth taking seriously. Over time, the United States came to understand that the Romanians’ desire to build a special relationship between Bucharest and Washington, D.C. was also to their advantage. It offered the possibility of creating breaches in the wall formed by Moscow’s satellite states. The steps that followed led to high-level meetings between Romanian and American officials. Political meetings, cultural exchanges, and economic contacts gradually built trust between the former rivals, opening possibilities for cooperation beyond their membership in different political blocs. Alongside the stakes of possible political and economic gains, personal relationships –beyond ideology – truly managed to build East-West bridges, just as President John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson had hoped.

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