Dumitru Dămăceanu

Dămăceanu was born in the village of Cosmești, in Galați County, Romania. He attended the Costache Negruzzi Boarding High School of Iași, and then the Military School for Cavalry Officers in Târgoviște, graduating in 1916 with the rank of second lieutenant. He then fought in the Romanian campaign of World War I with the 6th Regiment Roșiori. After the war, he pursued his military education at Infantry Officer School in Sibiu (1923) and the Military Academy of Turin (1929).

In between the world wars, he was military attaché in Rome, Italy, director at the Voievodul Mihai School, and adjutant to King Carol II.[2]

From 1941 to 1942 he was commanding officer of the 10th Roşiori Cavalry Regiment, fighting on the Eastern Front.[3] From 1942 to 1944 he was Chief of Staff of the Capital Military Command.

Colonel Dămăceanu participated in the August 23, 1944 coup d'etat led by King Michael against the government of Marshal Ion Antonescu. He organized and coordinated the military actions and resistance in Bucharest. By the end of August 1944, he travelled to Moscow with a Romanian delegation; they were received by Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov on August 30 or 31.[4] On September 12, 1944, General Dămăceanu was one of the plenipotentiary signatories of the Armistice Agreement between Romania and the Soviet Union (the other signatories were Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Ghiţă Popp, and Barbu Ştirbey on the Romanian side, and Rodion Malinovsky on the Soviet side).

Gen. Dumitru Damaceanu signing the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947 February 10

In 1946, he was a member of the Gheorghe Tătărescu-led Romanian delegation to the Paris WW II Peace Conference. The Peace Treaty with Romania was signed in Paris on February 10, 1947, in the Salon de l'Horloge of the Ministère des Affaires Étrangères. On the Romanian side, the four signatories were Gheorghe Tătărescu (Council Vice-President), Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu (Minister of Justice), Ştefan Voitec (Minister of National Education), and Dămăceanu (Under-Secretary – Ministry of War). Other signatories included James F. Byrnes (US Secretary of State, for the United States), Vyacheslav Molotov (Foreign Affairs Minister, for the Soviet Union), and Ernest Bevin (Foreign Affairs Secretary, for the United Kingdom).[5]

By then, Dămăceanu had been promoted from colonel general to army general.[1]

From August 23, 1944, to December 30, 1947, he was Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior, Council of Ministers, Ministry of War-Land Forces.

After King Michael's forced abdication and the complete Communist takeover, Dămăceanu was removed from the army. During the early 1950s he was degraded, arrested, tried and sentenced to serve time in prison.

After being released, during the 1960s, he was rehabilitated, receiving back his military rank – as a reserve officer. In 1974 he was promoted from the rank of colonel general to that of army general by presidential decree.[6]