According to Ion Mihai Pacepa (who defected to the United States in 1978), Ceaușescu wanted Nicu to become his Foreign Minister and for that, he instructed two high-ranked Party members, Ștefan Andrei and Cornel Pacoste (whom he considered brilliant communist intellectuals) to take care of Nicu's education; Pacepa further claimed that, unlike his older siblings, he disliked school and was allegedly derided by them for never being seen reading a book.[1]
As an apprentice in politics, he was mentored by Ștefan Andrei, Ion Traian Ștefănescu and Cornel Pacoste. Toward the end of the 1980s, he was made a member of the Executive Committee of the Romanian Communist Party and in 1987 the leader for Sibiu County, being prepared by his parents to be his father's successor.[2]
Post-communist life and legacy
Since high school, Nicu was reputed to be a heavy drinker. Pacepa alleged that Nicu scandalized Bucharest with his rapes and car accidents.[citation needed] He claimed that his father heard about Nicu's drinking problem, but his solution was to work harder.[clarification needed][1] He also allegedly lost large sums of money gambling around the world.[2][3]Latif Yahia—former body double of Uday Hussein, son of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein—claimed that Nicu was good friends with Uday, and the two would visit each other in Switzerland and Monaco.[4]
The documentary Videograms of a Revolution shows him exhibited as a prisoner on state television on 22 December 1989 after being arrested on accusations of holding children as hostages and other crimes.[citation needed] He was also arrested in 1990 for misuse of government funds under his father's regime, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.[citation needed] Released in November 1992 because of cirrhosis, he died of the disease four years later, aged 45, in a Vienna hospital.[3]
^ abIon Mihai Pacepa (1990) Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescus' Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption, Regnery Publishing, Inc. pp. 62–63. ISBN0-89526-746-2.
