Author Pacepa saw the Ceausescus first hand on a daily basis.  Lurid details on one of Communism's First Families (who could have appeared on Jerry Springer).  Details the international criminal, terrorist, drug, and espionage activities of several Communist intelligence services, including Pacepa's talks with Arafat, Gadhafi, and Tito.  Pacepa defected to the U.S. in 1978, the highest-ranking defector from an East Bloc nation.

If you want to learn about Ceausescu, but don't have time for heavy reading, this A&E Biography VHS video is a painless introduction.  50 minutes long, and not expensive.

Harvard University Press offers a comprehensive overview of the 20th century's Communist body count (authors estimate 85-100 million killed worldwide).  Covers Communist mass murder in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America. Authors demonstrate that: (1) Communism was a unified worldwide movement, and not disparate national liberation movements, and (2) that totalitarianism, repression, and mass murder are rooted in Communist ideology, and are not aberrations from "true Communism."  This book shows "why we fought" the Cold War.

Explains "why we won" the Cold War: President Reagan's strategy to outspend and outmaneuver the East Bloc nations (e.g.,  he induced Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, thus driving down the price of Soviet and Rumanian crude, further aggravating their economic woes).  Had Bush or Carter won the Presidency in 1980, Communists would likely still rule Eastern Europe. Yes, their economies would be shaky today, but their economies had always been shaky.  Yet the West propped them up for over six decades.  Reagan stopped that, which is why many streets in Eastern Europe are today named after him.  Extensively researched, and confirmed by declassified Soviet Politburo documents.

CEAUSESCU AND THE SECURITATE: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-1989, by Dennis Deletant.

Whereas Red China's "one child" policy mandates abortions, Ceausescu enforced an abortion ban by stationing Securitate officers in delivery rooms -- not from concern for the unborn, but because he wanted an expanding population of ethnic Rumanians.  The result was a surfeit of sick abandoned orphans.  A popular rumor (unconfirmed by Kligman) was that these orphans, embittered and without family ties, made prime Securitate recruits.  Meet these orphan ghouls in Vampire Nation.

Author was nominated by Reagan to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Rumania.  His book provides insight into the nomination & Senate confirmation process.  He was a "political appointee" rather than a State Dept. careerist, so he received pressure from both ends, hence his subtitle.  Selous Foundation Press, now out of print.

Part prison diary, this is the autobiography of a young man imprisoned in Rumania in the 1950s for trying to cross the border.  A vivid portrait of life in a Communist prison (both literal and the nation itself).  He later did get out, then returned to Rumania (with a Western passport) during the Ceausescu era, and reports what he saw.  Published in 1989, also by Selous Foundation Press, and also out of print.

British paperback published in 1991.  Original research, crisp writing, balanced reporting.  Includes post '89 revolution interviews and photos with Ceausescu children Nicu, Valentin, and Zoia.  Nicu, speaking from prison, says Pacepa's Red Horizons is "Lies, lies, and not even good lies!" 

Author is descended from Leo Tolstoy (of War And Peace fame).  Contains shocking accounts of Stalin's brutality and extreme paranoia.  Published in 1981 (by Holt, Rinehart, Winston), now out of print.  Recently released Soviet archives prove the truth was even more shocking than detailed in this book.

Karl Marx was descended from rabbis, yet wrote "A World Without Jews."  Often described by contemporaries as "swarthy" in appearance, he indulged in racist slurs.  Seems the man had "issues."  This book is out of print, but worth finding.  An exposé of a sick puppy, a racist, anti-Semite, and self-hating Jew, still hailed by university professors as a "humanist."

Okay, Vampire Nation is about Communist vampires.  As it happens, the real life Dracula (Vlad Tepes, 1431-1476) was regarded by Rumanian Communist dictator Nicholae Ceausescu to be a national hero.  Ceausescu commemorated Dracula on stamps and statues, reproduced in this book.  Ceausescu condemned Western vampire movies as a slur on the real life Dracula (who himself tortured & killed 20,000 - 100,000 people, depending on which source you believe).

Released in 1991 by Villard, now out of print.  Much information on Ceausescu's early years (how he became what he was) and the best accounting I've yet read of his last days & hours before his capture and execution.

Romania, a country study, edited by Ronald D. Bachman

THE LOST, by Jonathan Aycliffe

Opens days after Ceausescu's downfall.  This horror/medical thriller (vampire blood cures AIDS) is an uneven read, sometimes intriguing, sometimes too much of a soap opera.  The hero/priest doubts the existence of God, beds the heroine/ AIDS researcher, and leaves the Church.  Well-researched, yet not a novel about Communism; Ceausescu is portrayed as just the latest of Dracula's puppet rulers.

Comedy in which Dracula emigrates to the US.  In an early scene, Dracula is evicted from his newly nationalized castle by the Communist government.  Leaving, he adds, "Just remember, without me this place will be as exciting as Bucharest on a Monday night."

Award-winning comic book about the Nazi holocaust.  Like Vampire Nation and Animal Farm, an example of dark fantasy that teaches history.

This odd made-for-cable film is about an NSA (National Security Agency?) officer who discovers real-life vampires.  Shot in Hungary, the sets have a vaguely East European Communist, Orwellian milieu (Hmmmm) -- yet these are the good guys, and we're supposed to think that we're in some (alternative?) United States.

Kate Beckinsale's vampire assassin resembles Vampire Nation's vampire-hunter assassin.  There's also a vampire vs. werewolf war, which is also mentioned in Vampire Nation.  Hmmmm, again.