Ethiopia and the United States : Unhealthy Relationship

  By Tecola W. Hagos

   April 3, 2010

Part One

I. Introduction: Brief Diplomatic Background

For all of a century old relationship between Ethiopia and the United States , be it diplomatic, economic, and military, one has to strain one�s perceptions very hard to see anything that is positive. In that one century, the United States has climbed up the steep ladder of prosperity, cultural transformation, and technological advancement by leaps and bounds. It is now the lone single World Power with bristling nuclear armaments not to mention conventional weapon and weapon systems that is truly mind boggling. Its wealth is beyond computation. For example, according to the Federal Reserve, just before the economic crises of August 2007, the net worth of US households exceeded $56 trillion dollars. [Smick, 16] And even more astounding is the net capital flow into the United States of $6.5 trillion since 1995 that exceeded the trillions of dollars of debts owed by the United States to private parties and Sovereigns around the World. [Smick, 21, 51] These huge numbers represent truly fabulous wealth. By contrast, during that same period Ethiopia had gone from a proud self sustaining nation to a full fledged beggar nation of corrupt and brutal leaders and a terrorized population.

When the first diplomatic contact was made between the United States and Ethiopia in 1903 (the Robert P. Skinner mission, the idea was in gestation from 1900), the United States was recovering as yet from the shock of having its 25^th President, William McKinley, assassinated by an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz a couple of years earlier in 1901. Theodore Roosevelt succeeded the unfinished term of McKinley and later was elected in his own right as President of the United States in 1905. The United States was undergoing its own social and economic turmoil. Roosevelt arguably is considered to be the most gifted President of the United States ; nevertheless, his term of office was infected by cut-throat political intrigue and shifting of allegiance et cetera that led to the breakup of the Republican Party a few years later. The Democrats did not fare any better either. And the nation as a whole was at the height of racial bigotry with lynching and degrading treatment of Black folks although slavery was abolished in 1863 during the Civil War that was ended with the surrender of the South in 1865. Women did not have the right to vote until 1920. 

In the 1900 Ethiopia was being ruled by a world-renowned, but an aging and sickly Emperor Menilik II. The victorious Ethiopian State was also recovering for a period of six years by then from the Battle of Adowa of 1896 that it fought and won against Italy , which victory indisputably established Ethiopia as a force to reckon. However the War had taken its toll also on the Ethiopian civilian population. What is not mentioned by politicians and people in general is the fact the Battle to defend Ethiopia�s Sovereignty was fought under the worst condition one can imagine for an army to defend its nation, for by 1892 four years earlier from the Battle of Adowa Rinderpest introduced from India had wiped out almost 90% of the cattle all over Ethiopia, and the nation was struggling to stand on its feet against tremendous hunger and spread of disease and poverty all over Ethiopia. The Battle of Adowa, further degraded the healing process that was taking root slowly, for in its wake it left further hunger and pestilence. During that same period Ethiopia experienced the tragedy of the death of some important leaders and military commanders, such as the death of King Teklehimanot of Gojjam, the death of the great heroic commander Ras Alula et cetera. In 1903 Legations of the British, the French and the Italians were established. The Robert P. Skinner Mission was able to sign agreement of mutual benefit on December 27, 1903 with the Emperor Menilik II. Ethiopia at the time lacked many of the features of a modern state. Public education, infrastructure, industries, an independent judiciary, responsive democratic governance et cetera were almost non-existent. Nevertheless, Ethiopians of that time were a proud and courageous people albeit ignorant or oblivious of the primitive condition of their lives. And no one should not forget the fact that Ethiopia is the cradle of mankind and the originator of social groups, ethics, and civilized life.    

II. The First Fifty Years - Zero

An indispensable book to read on the diplomatic relationship of the United States and Ethiopia is the recent book by Professor Getachew Metaferia, Ethiopia and the United States : History, Diplomacy, and Analysis, Algora Publishing, 2009. No doubt the book is tilted toward the United States and is not critical enough for my test of the many underhandedness of the Government of the United States in its relationship with Ethiopia . However, this comment is not meant in anyway to impinge on the great quality of the research done by Getachew, who is a first rate scholar and a truly benevolent Ethiopian that I have the enviable privilege to have known well and consider a good friend. Personally, I admire not only Getachew but his family as well, who were pioneers in Gore, Gomu Gefa, in the great tradition of ancient Ethiopians who built and expanded great philosophical and religious insights. What is here I am concerned with is the age old problem of perception�just like two prisoners in the same circumstance may focus on two unrelated things: one may see the iron bar, the other the light on the outside. This is not a question of one person being right and the other wrong.

The first half century of the relationship of the United States and Ethiopia can only be described as minimal to nonexistent. There was very minimal and insignificant diplomatic, economic, cultural contact that should not be considered by any measurement as a constructive relationship between two supposedly �friendly� nations. One must ignore the revisionist account that is attempted by wishful thinking by those individuals who were lauding the Centennial celebration a few years ago. We must guard against serious harm to our national interest because we let our guard down due to our jaded acceptance of a non-existent close relationship with a Super Power that had continuously degraded our national Sovereignty and territorial integrity. Consider carefully the sequence and import of events from 1903 to date to evaluate the quality and magnitude of our relationship with the United States and its many Government leaders.

Almost three years later from the Skinner mission to Ethiopia , the American Legation was established in 1906 with Frank R. Mowrer as Consul General who left soon after and the US affairs were handled by the British Legation. The US presence was reestablished with vice Consul Generals that did not last that long either. The first Ethiopian Government Delegation was sent to the United States in 1919. Ethiopia had appointed a local representatives to look after its interest and to represent its interest in the United States since 1914. It was in 1949 that both the United States and Ethiopia decided to establish Embassies in each other countries, which is almost fifty years from first contact. Nothing of importance happened by way of diplomatic close relationships during that period although there were ample opportunities to cement close ties between Ethiopia and the United States .

Leading to and during the aggression and occupation by Italy of Ethiopia in 1935, the activities of the United States was nothing short of hostile to the Ethiopian interest, and the Government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt collaborated or at least seems to have endorsed the activities of Mussolini, by defaulting its international duties and isolating itself from the pending doom of World War II. Imposing sanction on both Ethiopia and Italy as if the two countries were equally guilty of international breach of the peace was the most cynical response of the Government of the United States to the aggression of Italy and the international crisis. The Fascist Regime of Mussolini having no challenges facing it from either side of the Atlantic Ocean, pressed on its savage aggression to the extent of using forbidden weapon of war on poorly armed Ethiopia , such as Mustard gas, exploding bullets, poison et cetera. In fact, Roosevelt found it necessary to state in 1935 that the US Government had no interest in the ongoing dispute between Italy and Ethiopia . The reality on the American political stage was that Roosevelt as a consummate predatory politician was thinking of his own political life with an eye on the votes of the Italian-Americans most of whom campaign in support of Italy against Ethiopia. The Mafia of Sicily by way of New York City and Chicago had a hand in all that anti-Ethiopia and anti-black rhetoric in shaping the US policy of the time. �In the 1930s, the �Italian vote,� which had fluctuated between the two parties, became solidly Democratic in support of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.� [I shall deal with this specific period (1935 to 1945) in a different section of this essay.]

It is embarrassing to me to write against the accepted false assertion by many about the close relationships of the United States and Ethiopia . I stress here the fact that how very little was done by way of economic, cultural, and mutual defense agreements and treaties between the United States and Ethiopia during the first fifty years of the non-existent �close relationship� wrongly and stupidly applauded by some gullible Ethiopians and Americans at the Centennial Celebration of a few years ago. When I write �embarrassing,� it is a very mild term I am using in reassessing the relationship of the United States and Ethiopia , for I should, in all fairness, use the term �shocking� to be fair and honest about that relationship. The amount of trade is very limited almost negligible. Hardly ten Ethiopians were trained in US Colleges and Universities during that same period of lethargic relationship of the first fifty years. There is not much to show for the first half century; however, the single exception was the establishment of the Ethiopian Airlines in 1945 with the management and training responsibilities assumed by the Trans World Airlines (TWA), a leading company of the United States .   

Tecola W. Hagos

Washington DC

April 3, 2010

To be continued

[Footnotes and bibliography will be provided at the conclusion of this essay. TH]

III. Ethiopia � National Security

IV. Carter and Clinton: The Fiasco  

IV. Bush and Obama: The Hawk and the Dove with Meles Zenawi

Conclusion