war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. King Ferdinand’s Proclamation to the Army, drafted by Stoica along with the proclamation for the Romanian public opinion, read: "You will fight alongside the great nations we are united with. Bloody battles are waiting you, but bravely enduring their hardness and with God’s help the victory will be ours". He subsequently fought in the Romanian Army against invading German forces in Oltenia, and followed the Romanian troops in their retreat to Moldavia. In March 1917, Stoica (by then a second lieutenant) was a member of a group of exiled Romanian Habsburg subjects who were sent as a delegation to the United States to campaign Romania's cause. The envoys also established close contacts with the Czech Tomáš Masaryk and the Polish Ignacy Jan Paderewski. He was instrumental in the creation of the Romanian National League of America in July, some months after America joined the Entente forces; among other things, the League, centered in Youngstown, Ohio, helped direct the war effort and participation of the Romanian-American community towards the US forces on the Western Front. Stephen P. Duggan wrote on December 10, 1920: "He has been over every part of [the United States]. He has come in contact with university professors, financiers, industrialists, [and Romanian-Americans]. He has made a district success wherever he went, as much a social success as an official success. It will take a new man a long time to learn as much as Captain Stoica and to secure the confidence of Americans in the way he has. Because of my official position, I have come during the war period, in contact with the representatives of all the foreign nations, and no one of them has impressed more favourably than Captain Stoica". Personal life Vasile Stoica married Ines (Nessy) Longhi de Sobione. Born January 21, 1898 in Parma, Italy, she came to Romania in 1927. Their marriage ended in divorce sometime prior to 1940. Ines Longhi died on February 16, 1956 while married to her second husband, Carol Ardeleanu, (né Köhler) an ethnic German from Transylvania. Postwar Imprisonment under Communist Rule He was imprisoned from 1948 to 1954 and in 1957 was arrested again and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He died in Jilava prison in 1959. Further reading Stoica, Vasile. The Roumanian Question: The Roumanians and their Lands. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Printing Company (1919). References Footnotes Sources Florin Mirghesiu - "Iaşi -