“For a long time Ceausescu was “our favorite Commie” because he broke from the Soviet Union on several policies, including refusing to break relations with Israel following the 67 War.”
It was only a deceptive facade to make the West trust him to a degree. The reality was different. His spies were given tasks directly from Kremlin to obtain military and industrial secrets as well as Western technologies the Russians couldn’t get themselves. He was also tasked with deceiving the Israelis and the West in believing he was a fair and disinterested peace negotiator when in fact he was collaborating with Arafat against Israel’s interests (for insurance reasons he also kept a file on Arafat homosexual escapades in Bucharest) See Gen. Ret. Ioan Pacepa’s book “Red Horizons”. As for the type of communist repression he imposed on Romanians most Eastern Europeans believe Ceausescu’s regime was the most authoritarian, repressing and lacking personal freedoms in the entire communist block.
“Romania was the only Communist-bloc country that didn’t boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics.”
That was because Ceausescu’s younger son and heir apparent to the throne Nicu was personally invested in the Romanian feminine gymnastics star Nadia Comaneci. She was the (unwilling) subject of Nicu sexual attentions and he wouldn’t have allowed her to miss another 3-4 Olympic medals he could brag about for anything in the world.
I'd put him a close second behind Albania's Enver Hoxha.