In 1958, Pleșiță earned communist distinction for his work in eradicating anti-communist resistance in the Carpathian regions of Transylvania. The honours he received included the Star of the People's Republic of Romania Order and the rank of Colonel. In parallel, having attended night school classes in Marxism-Leninism (which the regime had declared equivalent to university-level studies), he completed a one-year course in the Soviet Union. From 1961 to 1967, he was directly assigned to the Transylvanian city of Cluj, becoming head of the secret police apparatus in Regiunea Cluj. A deputy member of the regional Communist Party committee, he graduated from the History Department of the University of Cluj (Babeș-Bolyai) in 1968.