Grigore Gafencu - Political Career

Political Career

Gafencu studied law and received his Ph.D. in law from the University of Bucharest. During World War I, he participated as a lieutenant and received the Mihai Viteazul Order for courage in battle. After the war, he became a journalist and founded the Timpul familiei newspaper, which was translated in French and distributed in many countries. At the age of 32, he became a National Peasants' Party deputy in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies (lower house of the Romanian Parliament) and was the assistant of the Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Iuliu Maniu government of 1928.

In 1938, he became a Minister of Foreign Affairs. For the next two years, he tried to assure the neutrality of Romania, which was caught up between Germany and the Soviet Union. Due to his efforts, he obtained guarantees from France and England, but those were not respected. After Northern Transylvania was annexed by Hungary as a result of the Vienna Diktat, and Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertza region were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, he was sent as ambassador to Moscow. He returned to Romania after King Carol II named Ion Gigurtu foreign minister on 30 May 1940, and then left Romania to settle in Geneva, Switzerland.