ABSTRACT
The origins of "the Romanian exception" tie not only in the turbulent events of 1989 and the Ceausescu regime's inept response to them, but also in a twenty-year history of neglect, and consequent alienation, of the regular armed forces. The regular armed forces' primary responsibility for national defense was diffused and shared with "the Patriotic Guards," which were, in turn, subordinated to Romanian Communist Party, as opposed to state, authority. The armed forces, like virtually all of Romanian society, had reached the limits of their toleration of Ceausescu's "chaotic autocracy," the regime's endemic corruption, the ludicrous personality cult, and Romania's enveloping isolation. The part(s) played by the military in the events in Timisoara, Bucharest, and Tirgoviste remain as murky as many other aspects of the fin de regime. The army has never ceased to portray itself as that institution most closely aligned with the Romanian people in their heroic struggle.
