LT.GEN.ION MIHAI PACEPA was the highest-ranking official from the former Soviet bloc to defect to the United States. He was a two-star general in the Securitate (Communist Romania's secret police) before defecting, and he served as President Nicolae Ceausescu's advisor, chief of foreign intelligence, and state secretary of Romania's Ministry of Interior before defecting. Pacepa was forced to live in hiding and wrote six books before dying in 2021.