Ion Mihai Pacepa

Ion Mihai Pacepa was a Romanian <a href="/facts/Lieutenant_general/kwDr2Kf8">lieutenant general</a> in the <a href="/facts/Securitate/EKcxwRFR">Securitate</a>, the secret police of the <a href="/facts/Socialist_Republic_of_Romania/sIqLNfBy">Socialist Republic of Romania</a>, who <a href="/facts/Defection/Up49mrVc">defected</a> to the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a> in July 1978 following <a href="/facts/President_of_the_United_States/oMsfmLb1">President</a> <a href="/facts/Jimmy_Carter/Rr4UyAVX">Jimmy Carter</a>'s approval of his request for <a href="/facts/Right_of_asylum/NAAKtbUs">political asylum</a>. He was the highest-ranking defector from the former <a href="/facts/Eastern_Bloc/12f32hA7">Eastern Bloc</a>, and wrote books and articles on the inner workings of communist intelligence services. His best-known works are the books <a href="/facts/Disinformation_(book)/eU21Q9DU">Disinformation</a> and Red Horizons.
At the time of his <a href="/facts/Defection/Up49mrVc">defection</a>, Pacepa simultaneously had the rank of advisor to <a href="/facts/President_of_Romania/tldmN4bY">President</a> <a href="/facts/Nicolae_Ceau%25C8%2599escu/TE0TLTtC">Nicolae Ceaușescu</a>, acting chief of his <a href="/facts/Securitate/EKcxwRFR">foreign intelligence service</a>, and a parliamentary undersecretary at Romania's <a href="/facts/Ministry_of_Internal_Affairs_(Romania)/m4LAreuM">Ministry of Interior</a>.
Subsequently, he worked with the American <a href="/facts/Central_Intelligence_Agency/U7urmQYL">Central Intelligence Agency</a> (CIA) in operations against the former Eastern Bloc. The CIA described his cooperation as "an important and unique contribution to the United States".

Ion Mihai Pacepa open-in-new

Ion Mihai Pacepa