*With the Central and Eastern European countries, the United States was studiedly circumspect. The Bush administration responded to the East German revolt by sending Baker to meet with the communist premier and to offer economic assistance to the GDR. When violence broke out in Romania after the revolt against the dictator Ceausescu, Baker announced that he would not oppose Soviet intervention, even though until recently Romania had enjoyed privileged status in the West owing to its independent line from Moscow. In response to the Lithuanian declaration of independence in May 1990, Baker refused to recognize the new government even though the United States had long maintained that the Soviet annexation of the Baltics was illegal. Even as late as six weeks before the anti-Gorbachev coup, Bush went to Moscow to sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and then stopped in Kiev to warn the Ukrainians of the dangers of independence.