Within the party, he was a member of the central committee from 1945, and with Ceaușescu's rise to general secretary in 1965, he first became alternate member of the politburo and then member of the executive committee.[1][3] He died after a failed ulcer operation that resulted in much speculation.[2][3] In May 1966, he had participated in a rancorous meeting in Moscow with SovietMarshalAndrei Grechko, with the latter demanding increased Romanian military participation in the Warsaw Pact and the Romanian side, increasingly assertive of independence, hesitating to embrace the idea. As with the controversial death of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej a year earlier, Sălăjan's end came after being operated upon by doctors at Elias Hospital. According to an anesthesiologist who was present, Ceaușescu appeared after a first operation, encouraging the doctors: "Comrades, do something heroic!"[5]
^ abcdef(in Romanian)Galeria Şefilor SMG, at the Romanian Defense Ministry site; accessed April 2, 2012
^ abcd(in Romanian)Biografiile nomenklaturiiArchived 2012-03-05 at the Wayback Machine, at the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile site; accessed April 2, 2012