The Americans in Romania in the second half of the 1940s

Romanian-American relations deteriorated at great speed during WWII. Fighting on opposite sides, they were adversaries owing rather to circumstance. Romania had joined Germany in the war to protect itself from the aggression of the USSR, while the United States were allies with the USSR because they were fighting together against Germany. Despite this, Romania and the United States maintained minimal contacts, which eventually helped them re-establish closer ties. One example was the camp for American prisoners injured in Romania. Gheorghe M. Ionescu, who was a member of the National Peasant Party and a pro-American, was interviewed in 2004 for Radio Romania's Oral History Centre about his WWII experience. He described how German planes from a German military aerodrome in Geamăna, Arges county, in the centre-south of Romania, intercepted the US aircraft when the latter began bombing the area:

"They fought in the air above the village. When the American aircraft was hit, eight Americans from the 8-crew B-26 bomber parachuted themselves. Four died when hitting the ground and four were injured. The wind had blown them into a forest towards Cireşu. The civilian defence, the town hall and army troops were all mobilised and the alarm sounded. We were sent to look for them, but I didn't go. The Americans eventually came out of the forest and turned themselves in. They were put on two carts and taken to the hospital in Piteşti where they received treatment and recovered."

Showing lots of fair-play, the Americans thanked the locals for the humane treatment they had shown to the prisoners. Gheorghe M. Ionescu:

"About a month later, we heard an announcement on Radio London: Many thanks to doctor Nelecu, surgeon and the head of the hospital, for the care and attention he gave to the American soldiers. After they recovered, the American soldiers were of course sent to the prisoner's camp in Predeal, where it must be said that the Romanians treated them well. They even played tennis there, it was more like a resort than a prisoner camp, and certainly nothing like those run by the Russians. The four soldiers who died parachuting themselves were buried in the cemetery in Lăceni. Each had identification tags with their name, regiment, age and their civilian data. The Americans had their own exact records and it couldn't have been more than a week or ten days after 23rd August 1944 that they showed up in the village and exhumed the soldiers and took them back to Oklahoma where they had their home and families."

Gheorghe Barbul, the personal secretary to marshal Ion Antonescu told the historian Vlad Georgescu in a talk hosted in 1984 by Radio Free Europe that although enemies in the war, Romania and the United States were engaged in negotiation:

"The first direct contact with the Americans was made in Stockholm by Rădulescu, Mihai Antonescu's chief of staff. His interlocutor was a personal observer of Roosevelt in Europe who did have any official capacity. The US president used this system in order to circumvent the regular diplomatic channels and not be reproached by allies that he was conducting separate talks. The result of the Stockholm meeting was summed up by Mihai Antonescu like this: president Roosevelt is worried about the line of intersection in Europe between American and Soviet armies. The news brought back by Rădulescu had a profound effect in Bucharest. Marshall Antonescu felt he had been right in believing that by resisting the Russians militarily and preventing them from entering Europe, he was doing a service not only to Romania, but also to the Anglo-Americans."

After Germany's defeat in 1945 and Romania's occupation by the Soviet army, Romania could only hope that the American diplomacy would save it from the prospect of communism. The myth of the Americans' landing in the Balkans dates to this time and was, naturally, an illusion. The Liberal leader Radu Câmpeanu said in an interview in 2000 that the American envoys told Romanian politicians that the US had very little influence in Romania:

"Nicolae Penescu recounted to me the following episode that took place at the end of 1944. The National Peasant Party kept its files containing certain secret records and information with a certain Mr Melbourne. He was an officer from the American mission who had connections with the political parties. Melbourne lived in a flat somewhere near Grădina Icoanei. One time the party needed a document kept by Melbourne and sent someone to look for it. After consulting the document, Melbourne invited him to stay for a chat and told him 'I must tell you that we have no power here, it's Moscow who has all the power. You should try and reach and understanding with them, to talk to them.' So he goes back and tells his leader Maniu what Melbourne had advised. And Maniu put his hand on his and said: we will do what we believe in'".

Although history separated them from 1945 until 1989, Romania and the United States maintained their mutual affinities and after 1989 bilateral relations returned to their normal course, as was to be expected.