Dan Deșliu de pe aer", 1974). Starting in 1962 and particularly from 1970, he began to criticize the policies of the Romanian Communist Party, and as a result was placed under thorough surveillance by the Securitate secret police. In the 1980s, he turned toward open dissidence, repudiating his "revolutionary" past, quitting the party in 1980 and directly criticizing dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, whom he accused of behaving as if he were "the owner of Romania". In March 1989, he sent an open letter to Radio Free Europe decrying the domestic situation in his country, prompting his placement under house arrest. An excellent swimmer,
Nicolae Militaru The following day over a thousand soldiers and officers assembled in Bucharest, and Militaru was dismissed on February 16, replaced by General Victor Stănculescu. He ran in the 1996 presidential election, winning 0.22% of the vote. He died of cancer the next month on December 27, 1996. Nicolae Militaru Nicolae Militaru (November 10, 1925 – December 27, 1996) was a Romanian general who served as Defense Minister between December 1989 and February 1990. A graduate of the M. V. Frunze Military Academy in Moscow, he commanded the Romanian Land Forces' 2nd Army from 1969 to 1978. That year, under suspicion