Brutus Coste

Brutus Coste (10 February 1910 – 3 September 1984) was a Romanian diplomat whose service was cut short by the Second World War and who spent most of the rest of his life as an anti-communist campaigner in the United States. When U.S. government funding and interest in East European émigrés waned, Coste took up an academic position at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. He did not live to see the fall of the Ceaușescu regime.

Early life and family Coste was born in Ciacova, Banat, on 10 February 1910. His parents were attorney Iuliu Coste (1876–1967) and his wife Zoe. Iuliu Coste was prefect of Timiș-Torontal County twice in the 1920s. Brutus had two sisters, Zoe and Hortensia, and a brother, Zeno.

Career Coste entered the Romanian diplomatic service in 1933 and was secretary and later counsellor for the Romanian legations in Paris and London. Subsequently, he was chargé d'affaires in Washington and Lisbon.

From 1954 to 1965, he was secretary general of the Assembly of Captive European Nations (ACEN)

From 1965 to 1967, Coste was a consultant to the Foreign Policy Research Institute of the University of Pennsylvania and a special assistant to the president of the Institute for American Strategy. He did not live to see the fall of the communist regime in Romania.

Papers Papers relating to Coste's life are held in 85 boxes at the Hoover Institution.