Nicolae Ceaușescu had been making speeches for over a couple of decades. In fact, his speech on August 21, 1968 in defiance of the military actions taken by Moscow and a few of her allies in Czechoslovakia roused quite a considerable amount of support for not only himself, but for the Patriot Guards as well. However, when he took the balcony overlooking Palace Square (now Revolution Square) on December 21, 1989 things were not the same. He was giving his speech to the crowd that was brought in to be his claque, but it seemed that they were not taking orders anymore. After a few minutes of speaking, the crowd started to become recalcitrant and began chanting phrases. This led to hecklers coming out of the woodwork and taking potshots at him. Ceaușescu became confused to the contumacious mob. He tried to regain authority with raising his right hand slightly as if to calm the insurgent throng. It failed and he succumbed to the taunts and started to quarrel with people. It eventually led to his security forces withdrawing him into the building. His facial expressions during his bewilderment showed his vulnerability. This combined with the crowd’s unity and determination to stand for no more definitely helped lead to his ousting only a day or so later.

“Video of Ceausescu’s Last Speech, December 1989,” Making the History of 1989, Item #696, http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/696 (accessed January 28 2014, 9:17 pm).