Vasile Milea
Vasile Milea
Ceaușescu's last defence minister: his death on 22 December 1989 triggered the army's mass defection to the revolution
"I received an order from Nicolae Ceaușescu to shoot into the people. I cannot give the order to shoot."
A Romanian infantry officer who rose steadily through the communist army, he was appointed defence minister by Ceaușescu in 1985. When the revolution erupted in December 1989, he commanded the Timișoara crackdown but was publicly rebuked by Ceaușescu at the 17 December Political Executive Committee for refusing to issue live ammunition: Ceaușescu told him he deserved a firing squad. On the morning of 22 December, immediately after his final meeting with Ceaușescu, he shot himself in the chest at the Central Committee building; his death, broadcast as that of a 'traitor,' instead triggered the army's mass defection to the revolution and sealed the regime's collapse.
Career timeline
- 1949Commissioned as infantry lieutenant
- 1950–1952Top of class, Tank & Mechanized Faculty, Military Academy
- 1958Dismissed from divisional command and expelled from party for financial shortfall
- 1960Reinstated in party; commandant, Tank Officer School
- 1965–1973Commander, 3rd Army; major general → lieutenant general
- 1973–1978Chief of Staff, Patriotic Guards
- 1980–1985First Deputy Minister & Chief of General Staff
- 1985–1989Minister of National Defence