V o L u m e I : a d

Carol was obliged to recall Antonescu to form a govern-

ment. Initially, Antonescu’s National Legionary regime

was a coalition dominated by the Iron Guard, which, how-

ever, soon lost popular support through its incompetence

and violence that culminated in an attempted coup in Jan-

uary 1941.

Antonescu then moved in, supported by Romanian

and German military forces. The Iron Guard leaders fled

to Germany, where they were interned. On Antonescu’s

invitation, German troops arrived on 10 October 1940,

ostensibly to train the Romanian Army but, more impor-

tant, to guard the Romanian oil fields and to launch the

Balkan and Soviet campaigns the following spring.

Antonescu, convinced that Germany would win the

war, hoped that German leader Adolf Hitler would revise

the Vienna Award in return for Romania’s military sup-

port. Viewing Operation 

BARBAROSSA

(begun on 22 June

1941) as an opportunity to regain Bessarabia and northern

Bukovina, he commanded Army Group Antonescu and

reclaimed the territory in question within a month of the

German invasion of the Soviet Union. He then commanded

the Romanian Fourth Army’s assault on Transnistria, a

region that came under Romanian administration and to

which some 100,000 Bessarabian and Bukovinan Jews

were deported. Despite Antonescu’s refusal to participate

outright in the German Final Solution, at least 250,000

Jews and Gypsies died as a result of his policies.

Soon after the German defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad

in early 1943, Antonescu authorized contacts with the Allies

for Romania to leave the war. Their answer was clear:

Romania would have to negotiate this with the Soviet Union. Soviet Foreign

Minister Vyacheslav Molotov announced Soviet conditions on 2 April 1944.

These called for Romania to switch sides and join the Allied war effort, relin-

quish Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, and pay reparations to the Soviet

Union. The Vienna Award would be nullified, and northern Transylvania

would be returned to Romania. Antonescu foolishly refused these conditions

and resumed direct command of his troops shortly after the Soviet offensive

along the Romanian border on 20 August 1944. Returning briefly to Bucharest,

Antonescu was summoned to the royal palace on 23 August, where King

Michael asked him to sign an armistice. Antonescu refused and was arrested.

He was then transferred to the Soviet Union. Brought back to Romania, he

was tried on war crimes charges during 4–17 May 1945 before a People’s Court.

Found guilty, he was executed at Jilava prison near Bucharest on 1 June 1946.

Anna Wittman

See also

Bessarabia; Dobruja; Romania

Antonescu, Ion

149

Ion Antonescu became prime minister of Romania in

1940. His fascist pro-German government was popular 

in the early years of World War II, but he was eventually

deposed in a coup d’état and executed as a war criminal.

(Library of Congress)

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References

Hillgruber, Andreas. Hitler, König Carol und Marschall Antonescu. Die Deutsch-Rumänischen

Beziehungen 1938–1944 [Hitler, King Carol and Marshal Antonescu. German-

Romanian Relations, 1938–1944]. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1954.

Hitchins, Keith. Rumania, 1866–1947. Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1994.

Collective security agreement among Australia, New Zealand, and the United

States (ANZUS). The ANZUS Pact was concluded on 1 September 1951 in

San Francisco and went into force on 29 April 1952. This marked the first time

that Australia and New Zealand participated in a security treaty in which the

United Kingdom did not also participate.

At the time the pact was drafted, its aims were to prevent the expansion

of communism into the region and to prevent the resurgence of Japan as a

military threat (a specific concern of Australia and New Zealand). These

anti-Japanese sentiments gradually diminished as time passed, and thus the

main thrust of the pact was on the containment of communism. Australia and

New Zealand, in alliance with the United States, participated in the Korean

War, the Vietnam War, and the foundation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Orga-

nization (SEATO) in 1954.

The Australian commitment to ANZUS has been maintained in principle

across various governments; however, New Zealand’s commitment waxed

and waned with internal political shifts. New Zealand’s Labour government

(1972–1975) adopted an antinuclear policy, which temporarily strained rela-

tions with the United States and called into question New Zealand’s com-

mitment to ANZUS. New Zealand’s policies were reversed when the Labour

Party lost power in 1975. However, Labour returned to power in 1984 and

implemented its antinuclear policy again.

The New Zealand government, led by Prime Minister David Lange,

banned nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed ships from entering New Zealand

ports and in 1985 refused port access to the destroyer USS Buchanan, which

was capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Diplomatic relations with the

United States were greatly strained as a result of the Lange government’s

policies. In August 1986 the U.S. government finally suspended its ANZUS

defense obligations to New Zealand.

This crisis wrought serious consequences on New Zealand, such as the

restriction of intelligence information provided from the United States.

However, New Zealand steadfastly maintained the antinuclear policy and

adopted the Nuclear Free Zone and Disarmament and Arms Control Act in

1987. Although foreign and military relations between America and New

Zealand have been gradually improving since the mid-1990s, New Zealand

has yet to return to ANZUS.

The terrorist attacks against the United States on 11 September 2001

gave occasion for the first official invocation of the ANZUS Pact by Aus-

150

ANZUS Pact

ANZUS Pact

(1 September 1951)

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