During the early stages of World War II, Crainic gave Baciu the office of editorial secretary at "Gândirea" magazine, but sacked him upon finding out about his Social Democratic loyalties. According to communist sources, Baciu was himself an affiliate or sympathizer of the Iron Guard—a claim that has since been disputed; Baciu's PSDR membership and his mother's Jewishness disqualified him for such an enterprise. By his own account, Baciu was a "malagambist", meaning that he followed the zoot-clad jazzman Sergiu Malagamba and had cosmopolitan, Americophile tastes. He did however befried the Guard's poet laureate, Radu Gyr, helping him publish in "Gândirea" even after the Guard's violent fall from grace in early 1941.