Vasile Milea
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Vasile Milea (1 January 1927, Lereşti, Argeş – 22 December 1989) was Nicolae Ceauşescu's minister of defense during the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and was involved in the reprisal phase of the revolution that took 162 lives.
The events surrounding Milea's death in the morning of 22 December 1989 are unclear. Official reports claim Milea committed suicide, whereas members of his family claim that he was killed on the orders of Ceauşescu. A report from 2005 after a full investigation including a postmortem concludes that Milea killed himself using the weapon of one of his attendants. It seems that he only tried to get incapacitated in order to be relieved from office. But the bullet hit an artery and he died soon afterwards.
His death really angered Ceauşescu who called him "a traitor", but Milea had already ordered troops to come in defense of Ceauşescu and to repress revolutionaries. Victor Stănculescu, the new minister of defense appointed by Ceauşescu, ordered troops back to their quarters. Therefore Milea remains a controversial figure: a hero to some, one of Ceauşescu's henchmen to others.
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