Vin americanii!
was a slogan used in Romania in the 1940s and 1950s, encapsulating the hope that an American-led invasion of Eastern Europe would topple the Soviet-backed, Communist-dominated government installed in early 1945.
They built supply lines with the local population, gathered armaments, munitions and money, and developed plans to attack institutions and communications networks.
One of the accusations put forth at the trial of the Sumanele Negre group was that its members had developed contacts with American intelligence officers, together studying the possibility of collaborating and coming up with a plan to overthrow the regime.
To this end, the OPC created training camps in Italy, France, and Greece, where recruits learned how to use radio transmitters and make parachute jumps.
[4] The Graiul Sângelui organisation, led by professor Ion Vulcănescu and retired general Nicolae Ciupercă sought to facilitate the actions of American airborne troops which they hoped were to land in Romania.
[5] Exiled former Iron Guard members, working with American and French officers, developed a plan of their own, involving the parachuting of 50 men into Romania who would then contact mountain resistance groups.
Preparations took place in the French Occupation Zone of Germany, around Paris, and in the south of France, with a focus on parachute jumping, night-time orientation, and shooting.
For instance, in the early 1950s, the Ion Gavrilă group in the Făgăraș Mountains tried contacting the Romanian National Committee in the United States, sending them a letter with the geographic coordinates where food and arms should be dropped.
[8] American planes were also eagerly awaited by peasants and shepherds who helped the partisans, not only for political reasons, but also because the latter took food from them, promising to pay using money found in parachuted parcels.
[9] For instance, historian Radu Ciuceanu, who was with a resistance group in the mountains at the time, says that if the Red Army had attacked Western Europe, as he expected then, the Romanian anti-communists could have freed the country from the influence of Moscow, with the victory of the West.
[12] The Soviet occupation, de facto begun in late August 1944, launched the "vin americanii" hope in earnest, but this was accentuated after November 1946, when the Communists won an election through intimidation and probable fraud, liquidated the opposition National Peasants' Party in July 1947, and forced King Michael to abdicate that December.
Voice of America reports were amplified or distorted: for instance, when news of King Michael's meeting with U.S. President Harry S. Truman was broadcast in April 1948, it was said in Brăila that the latter had assured him he would soon regain his throne, and in Bucharest, that he would be back home before Easter.
As historian Florin Constantinescu notes, "A strange phenomenon of collective psychology was the strong and enduring belief that the West and above all the US would pull Romania from beneath the Soviet boot.
These resisted all proof of disinterest in Western capitals toward the countries left behind the 'Iron Curtain' and only after the crushing of the Hungarian revolution by the Red Army in 1956, beneath the passive gaze of the West, did Eastern Europeans, among them Romanians, begin to abandon their hopes and face reality".
[26] The expression is also used jocularly to refer to the vain hope that somebody else will magically solve an entire country's problems; the sentiment is captured by the pop-rock band Taxi in the lyrics of their song, "Criogenia salvează România" ("Cryogenics saves Romania")[27]: 820–21 The 2016 documentary Ține, Doamne, partizanii, până vin americanii!
(directed by Dragoș Zămosteanu) presents the story of Aristina Pop-Săileanu [ro], who stood out through her guerrilla activity in Maramureș, and led the anti-communist partisans in the Țibleș Mountains.
