Corneliu Mănescu (8 February 1916 – 26 June 2000) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n diplomat born in

Ploiești Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest. The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commun ...

. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania from 1961 to 1972 and as

President of the United Nations General Assembly The president of the United Nations General Assembly is a position voted by representatives in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on a yearly basis. The president is the chair and presiding officer of the General Assembly. Election ...

from 19 September 1967 to 23 September 1968.

Life and political career

After completing his secondary studies in

, Mănescu went on to study law and

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...

at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...

from 1936 to 1940. He joined the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that wo ...

in 1936. While a student, he began writing for leftist publications, mostly about international relations. He was the leader of the Bucharest Communist students' organization until 1940. In 1944 he was working at the Central Statistics Bureau, and in 1948 he was appointed as one of the vice ministers of the Ministry of National Defence, with the rank of

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colon ...

. Promoted shortly after to

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

, he served from 1950 to 1952 as head of the National Military Circle. In 1959 he was named chief of the Higher Political Division of the Army, with the rank of

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

. Between 1955 and 1960 he was vice president of the State Planning Committee. In 1960, Mănescu became Director of the Political Division in the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The enti ...

. From 1960 to 1961, he served as Ambassador to

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

. He was appointed Minister of

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy a ...

in March 1961, a post in which he remained until 1972. Other important posts he held were that of vice president of the United Socialist Front, president of the Romanian Group of the

Inter-Parliamentary Union The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; french: Union Interparlementaire, UIP) is an international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and cooperation among its members; other ...

, ambassador to France (1977–1982). Mănescu, who became a member of Romanian Communist Party's Central Committee in 1965, was the first

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

elected president of the UN General Assembly. In 1989, he became the leader of the reformist movement within the

. In March 1989, together with five other Communist dignitaries (

Gheorghe Apostol Gheorghe Apostol (16 May 1913 – 21 August 2010) was a Romanian politician, deputy Prime Minister of Romania and a former leader of the Communist Party (PCR), noted for his rivalry with Nicolae Ceaușescu. Early life Apostol was born near T ...

, Alexandru Bârlădeanu,

Silviu Brucan Silviu Brucan (born Saul Bruckner; 18 January 1916 – 14 September 2006) was a Romanian Communist politician. He became a critic of the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu. After the Romanian Revolution, Brucan became a political analyst. Ear ...

Constantin Pîrvulescu Constantin Pîrvulescu (November 10, 1895, Olănești, Vâlcea County – July 11, 1992, Roman) was a Romanian communist politician, one of the founders of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), who, as time went on, became an active opponent o ...

, and

Grigore Răceanu Grigore Ion Răceanu (1906–1996) was a Romanian communist politician and opponent of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Born in Cojocna, Cluj County, he became a train driver for Căile Ferate Române. He was also a trade union leader, being one of the organ ...

), he signed the

open letter An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an indiv ...

known as ''Scrisoarea celor șase''—"The Letter of the Six". After the

Romanian Revolution of 1989 The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred ...

, he was part of the interim council that administered Romania in 1990 from the overthrow of the

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He ...

government until elections could be held. Mănescu married Doina Dobrescu in 1950. They had a daughter, Alexandra. He died in a hospital on 26 June 2000 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north o ...

, Romania.

References

External links

Short bio
at un.org * Gabriel Partos
"Obituary: Corneliu Mănescu"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', June 30, 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Manescu, Corneliu Members of the Great National Assembly Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly Romanian Ministers of Foreign Affairs Romanian communists People of the Romanian Revolution University of Bucharest alumni People from Ploiești 1916 births 2000 deaths Permanent Representatives of Romania to the United Nations Ambassadors of Romania to Hungary Ambassadors of Romania to France Presidents of the Romanian Football Federation Romanian sports executives and administrators