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The Lion of Judah in the New World

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Messenger: Eleazar Sent: 3/6/2013 11:36:45 PM
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The Lion of Judah in the New World: Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and the Shaping of Americans’ Attitudes toward Africa

by THEODORE M. VESTAL

To the Americans and Ethiopians who worked for a better Ethiopia during the years of Haile Selassie

Contents

Preface ix

1 A Lion in the Streets 1

2 From Sly Fox to King of Kings 19

3 Mussolini and the Legacy of Adwa 28

4 Liberation under the Shadow of Britain 33

5 The Treasure of Kagnew 40

6 A Very Royal First State Visit, 1954 48

7 The Spring of the Lion 64

8 The Rituals of U.S. and Ethiopian Diplomacy 95

9 1960, The Annus Horribilis of Haile Selassie 105

10 The Lion of Judah at Camelot: The Second State Visit, 1963 112

11 He Shall Have a Noble Memory: The Kennedy Funeral 130

12 The Winter of Discontent: The Third State Visit, 1967 136

13 Götterdämmerung: The Nixon State Visits, 1969, 1970, and 1973 161

Epilogue 186




Messenger: Eleazar Sent: 3/6/2013 11:38:28 PM
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Preface

Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, was an iconic figure of the 20th century, who came to embody the majesty of the African continent and its people in the minds of many Americans. Starting at least with his coronation as Ethiopia’s King of Kings in 1930, and continuing through the velvet revolution that overthrew him in 1974, the emperor was a well-known celebrity in the United States. In the years following World War II, Haile Selassie cultivated his nation’s friendship with the United States, and starting in 1954 he came to Washington on six state visits, the most of any reigning foreign head of state up until that time, and also traveled to many other destinations in North America. His fame as an international celebrity was well earned. He won it the old fashioned way: by significant accomplishments. Wartime always produces new heroes, and before and during World War II, Haile Selassie was elevated into high visibility by being among the first to stand up to the European dictators, who shortly would wreak such worldwide havoc, and subsequently to champion an international order to prevent similar malevolence from threatening weaker nations again. At the League of Nations, the little king created, in image and in word, a composition of rich emotional eloquence. The Haile Selassie we see in the old newsreels is the one who registered on the national conscience and created a place for himself in the American heart that remained thereafter. The emperor’s visits to the United States generated rapt attention from the media, and the wily monarch manipulated that coverage
o further the programs and causes that he believed in. Number one on his list of priorities was himself. Having briefly lost power during the Italian occupation of Abyssinia, he wanted to stay in power and never relinquish it again. To do this, he needed military might that was sufficient to put down rebellion at home and to defend Ethiopia against outside aggression. Economic development of his country also would help him remain on the throne—enough to satisfy progressives who clamored for change but not too much to antagonize feudal lords and the Ethiopian Church, who preferred the status quo. Further, Haile Selassie was intent on maintaining his nation’s sovereignty and the boundaries of greater Ethiopia that he and his imperial predecessors had worked hard to establish. He was obsessed with collective security, thought the United Nations the best perpetuator of the idea, demanded an end to colonialism, especially in Africa, and promoted Pan-Africanism and African unity. The stone-faced ruler sought to project his image as an elder statesman and leader of Africa whose moderating voice would be heard and respected throughout the continent. At the same time, during the height of the Cold War, he wanted to be an active player in the nonaligned movement, a bravura act of tightrope walking, given U.S. bases in his country and treaties with the United States in his diplomatic portfolio. By royal ritual and performance, Haile Selassie hoped to persuade his foreign audiences that the king was a great person, one of illustrious lineage and with impressive actual and symbolic powers, especially in his heading of an ancient country of the Christian faith. To realize more fully these aspirations, the emperor needed the good will of the American people and the bankrolling of his causes by the U.S. government. Thus his frequent state visits were rationalized as needed personal diplomacy with the U.S. president in what he perceived as crisis after crisis involving Ethiopia’s security—and as an excuse to extend his own power. The American response to his visits was far greater than the emperor could have envisioned. The U.S. Department of State staged rituals with spectacular moments where diplomacy and entertainment converged before adoring crowds. Celebrity works on emotions, and the pseudoevents starring the Ethiopian king of kings provided an ecstatic merging of magic and reality that left an indelible imprint on Americans’ emotional memory. Possessing exactly the right combination of gravitas and mystery, the emperor played upon the mystic chords of memory of his audiences. If kingship is created entirely by the way other people react to a ruler, the little king had willing subjects in the throngs that cheered him along the urban boulevards and rural routes f the country where “nice customs curtseyed to great kings.” 1 And the memory stuck. Years later, a sighting of the patriarchal Haile Selassie on television, a casual reference, could call to remembrance, however fleetingly, the solemn monarch who so long and prominently made valued contributions to postwar life. Critics, looking back from the 21st century, aware of the construction and manipulation of images by a celebrity-bound society, might see the state visits of the emperor as essentially the institutionalization of Haile Selassie’s publicity stunts. There might be an element of truth to that judgment, but that does not detract from the mysterious quality of the monarch that so beguiled Americans. For many, Haile Selassie became a metaphor for Africa—that is, the understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. His longevity and participation in world affairs maintained that metaphor far beyond his best years on the diplomatic circuit. Over time, we put our own gloss on our metaphors, and the emperor came to stand for what Americans wanted Africans to be: calm, regal, suave, strong, and silent—concepts important to Americans. The truth or falsity of such a metaphor is less significant than the perception and inferences that follow from it and the actions that are sanctioned by it. “We define our reality in terms of metaphors and then proceed to act on the basis of metaphors.” 2 America’s action was to store the memory of Haile Selassie, the traditions, his humanity and achievements, in the subconscious as a positive image of an African. In present-day Ethiopia, few know just how popular their monarch was in the New World. It is perhaps difficult to understand how a ruler so reviled in his homeland for more than 35 years by successor governments could have been such an international celebrity and be so royally received abroad. Haile Selassie was a major actor on the world stage, and because of that, Ethiopia enjoyed prestige and respect throughout the world that has been absent in later years. In the 1950s and 1960s, in the nation of what once was, Ethiopia was like Terry Malloy, the protagonist of the 1954 motion picture On the Waterfront . As portrayed by actor Marlon Brando, one could believe that the prizefighter Malloy could have been a contender for the title. He chose some wrong fights and had bad advice from his managers, and ended up as a dockworker instead of a champion. Ethiopia could have been a contender among the nations of the world, but it also chose wrong fights, and the post-royal managers were awful. The proud nation was knocked down and has remained on the canvas ever since. Although the country has many devoted fans who are hoping that Ethiopia will rise and become a contender, and hold its rightful place in main events in the Africa arena, the body politic has suffered some severe damage. Deficits of democracy, human rights abuses, and some harmful decisions by its people and its leaders have taken the ancient land in other directions. The country has yet to live up to its great potential that was touted widely during the emperor’s time. Instead of becoming the breadbasket of Africa, Ethiopia became a famine-ravished basket case. The result is that the image of Ethiopia in the minds of many people worldwide became that of a wasteland peopled by starving children with bloated stomachs—a far cry from the image of a heroic caped and bearded emperor striding down the aisle of the League of Nations with imperial dignity, deep in grief, proud and resolute in expression—the image prevalent until Haile Selassie’s death. This book tells the dynamic story of how the emperor, the ruler of a developing country, strongly helped shape Americans’ perceptions of and attitudes toward the entire continent of Africa and its people. By documenting the travels of Haile Selassie to North America and the reaction of government officials and the general public to his visits, this book will explore the following: • Why Haile Selassie enjoyed such celebrity in the United States. • How the emperor became the single-most important fi gure in infl uencing U.S. attitudes toward Africa. • How the emperor’s state visits refl ected U.S. foreign policy toward Ethiopia and Africa over a period of two decades. The book will include a brief biography of Haile Selassie, illuminating his era that extended from World War I through the Cold War. The tensions, contradictions, and unanswered questions raised during Haile Selassie’s life are highlighted in significant episodes that demonstrate just how widespread the emperor’s influence reached in North America. The work also describes how visits by celebrity foreign heads of state were majestically managed and reported when they were still rare and newsworthy events. This book is not a paean to the emperor. There are many of those, some being well-written encomiums to the monarch. The emperor, being human, had his foibles, and these appear in the narrative. Likewise, he was deserving of praise for some of his actions, and this is recorded where appropriate. It should be noted that the Crown Council of Ethiopia, under the sterling leadership of Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie Haile Selassie, the emperor’s grandson, keeps the memory of Preface xiii the Lion of Judah alive through various media. And of course, Rastafarian authors write hymns of praise to the emperor they glorify. On the other hand, this book is not a derogation of the little king. There are many of those written primarily by members of Ethiopian ethnic groups who viewed Haile Selassie as an Amhara imperialist who inflicted grievous wrongs upon their people. The evils of his rule and the analogy of the emperor’s lack of clothes certainly were well known and have been recurrently recorded. The demise of the diminutive sovereign heralded open season for animadversions on the royal family, and there has been no shortage of vehement venting of spleen about hoary trespasses against the kith and kin of nations, nationalities, and people. For enlightened readers, it is a tricky matter of finding a proper perspective in which to balance the descriptions of a demonic despot administering large doses of cruelty with the accounts of the mythic recipient of beautiful, calculate diplomacy and lofty, lyrical language of praise. Currently, when the United States has elected its first president whose father was from Africa, and when the troubled lands of Africa may well receive special attention in U.S. foreign policy, it is important to understand the background, the positive subconscious images or metaphors that are stored in American memory and that were relevant in this precedent-shattering election. The images of Africa and of Africans that the American people developed during Haile Selassie’s prominence will no doubt be referred to by historians, psychologists, and sociologists—as well as the media—as having played a part in the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008. This book attempts to fill in blank spaces in recording when, how, and why the emperor made his mark on the American conscience. It is a true account of the world as we experienced it, what e. e. cummings called “a recent footprint in the sand of was,” 3 and of the legacy of that experience today. It is an American’s view of an Ethiopian’s influence on Americans, and for that reason it was written primarily for an American audience. The author hopes Ethiopians will find it intriguing too. * * * There were so many wonderful people who encouraged me and gave good counsel in the preparation of this book, that to list them all would exceed my space limitations in a preface. Suffice it to say that all their assistance and benevolences were most appreciated. My work on this book was supported by generous grants from the Oklahoma xiv Preface Humanities Council and Oklahoma State University. The OSU Department of Political Science and School of International Studies provided vital funds for travel. My colleague Conrad Evans and other splendid veterans of the Point Four program in the Oklahoma Ethiopia Society have assisted in myriad ways. Shlomo Bachrach’s marvelous East Africa Forum on the Web has kept me informed about the present, past, and future of Ethiopia and the Horn. The International Conference of Ethiopian Studies in sessions at Hamburg and Trondheim provided me with fora to present papers that eventually became chapters in this book. I thank the University of Hamburg, and especially Professor Siegbert Uhlig, for naming me the Hiob Ludolf Endowed Professor of Current Issues of Ethiopian Studies in 2005 and providing me with pleasant surroundings and stalwart colleagues at its Institute for Asian and African Studies. My public lecture delivered under the Institute’s auspices developed into an outline of this book. Also at Hamburg, my colleagues at theEncyclopaedia Aethiopica and the students in my seminar on “Law and Politics of the Ethio-Eritrean Area” provided stimulating ideas that made their way into my writing. Both Elias Wondimu, publisher and editorial director of the International Journal of Ethiopian Studies, and Dr. Said S. Samatar, editor of Horn of Africa, kindly published my articles and offered most useful suggestions for improving them. Dr. Teffera Betru, one of the finest PhD graduates of OSU, served as my excellent translator of Kebede Michael’s detailed Amharic book, His Majesty in America, about the emperor’s first state visit in 1954. The executive dynamos of the Junior Statesman Foundation, Richard and Karen Prosser, allowed me to teach in the foundation’s summer schools and provided me opportunities to testify before a congressional committee and to do research in the libraries of Georgetown, Yale, and Princeton. The Ethiopian-American Historical and Cultural Society and its founder Assefa Adefris invited me to speak and participate in several of their conferences in Washington, DC, where I met Ethiopians and Ethiopianists who shared their wisdom about the topic of my book. My scholarly friends, Professor Negussay Ayele and Berihun Assfaw, provided me with little-known information about the emperor. The all-star lineup of Ethiopian scholars and writers who honored me by asking me to critically read prepublication manuscript versions of their books, from which I learned so very much that was helpful in my writing, included Ambassador Zaude Hailemariam and Professors Danial Kendie, Paulos Milkias, Shumet Sishagne, Getachew Metaferia, Messay Kebede, and Daniel Teferra. My friends in the Ethiopia and Eritrea Returned Peace Corps volunteers have been a wonderful Preface xv source of information—especially in their outstanding newsletter The Herald, edited by that nonpareil wordsmith Barry Hillenbrand. A special tip of the hat goes to the knowledgeable librarians, archivists, and audiovisual specialists of the National Archives and Records Administration and the presidential libraries of Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon; the Library of Congress; and the university libraries of Boston University; Georgetown; Harvard; Oklahoma State University, Stillwater; Princeton; St. Andrews; University of Texas; University of Tulsa; Yale; and, most especially, the reference librarians of Oklahoma State University, Tulsa. Michael Millman, senior editor at ABC CLIO, was a patient supporter of my book from the proposal stage onward, and without his assistance and encouragement, this project would never have come to completion. Closer to home, I thank my granddaughter Julianne Thomson, a graduate student in archeology at Oxford, for editing work; my son Edward Vestal, in Singapore, who scoured U.S. military libraries to get me information on the air forces of Ethiopia and Somalia; and my wife Pat, who keeps fine arts at the center of our lives and encourages the pursuit of excellence.


Messenger: Eleazar Sent: 3/6/2013 11:45:45 PM
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CHAPTER 1 A Lion in the Streets

The petite, sepia man, resplendent in a regal uniform, looked up at the snowfall of ticker tape and confetti in the canyon of Broadway. From his vantage point in an open limousine, the black-bearded African monarch, with the face of an aesthete, Emperor Haile Selassie—Instrument and Power of the Trinity, Elect of God, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and King of Kings of Ethiopia—was the center of attention of a cheering crowd of a million New Yorkers. Why was the little emperor, the personification of an ancient people, receiving such a tumultuous welcome in the New World? Who was this ruler from the dark continent, so little known in America, the honoree of a ticker-tape parade, New York City’s most spectacular welcome to distinguished visitors? Why was this man, 7,000 miles from home, the subject of such adulation? A large outpouring of noontime crowds was seeing, for the first time, a supremely dignified African leader and his handsome entourage of Ethiopians. Every foot of curbing was occupied by applauding and cheering humanity. In a city with a vast experience in welcoming celebrities, it took nearly an hour to cover the mile-long motorcade route. Haile Selassie was the first sub-Saharan African head of state to ride the magic mile up Broadway through the shower of paper and confetti in the canyon of heroes. The emperor had opened the gate to the Broadway parade for African leaders, and, five months later, President William V. S. Tubman of Liberia would be the second in a long line of developing nations’ heads of state to be so honored. 2 The Lion of Judah in the New World As the 10-car motorcade made its way up Broadway from Battery Park to City Hall, the ticker tape and other shredded paper was so thick that the emperor could barely be seen. The tumult brought a rare public smile to the face of the monarch, who usually maintained an almost sphinx-like dignity. Beaming from his open car, he stretched wide and high as he waved and doffed his red-trimmed field marshal’s cap at the sidewalk throngs and the audiences in the skyscrapers’ windows above. Spectators snapped photographs of the king of kings. Pretty girls blew him kisses. Many usually blasé Manhattanites delayed lunch to see the iconic ruler. From churches, ceremoniously garbed clergy stepped out on the sidewalks to see and honor this titular leader of the Coptic faith. 1 The emperor had reason to be happy. The year was 1954, and a series of events had made Haile Selassie secure in the rule of his homeland and the recipient of accolades on the world scene—a very different situation than had been the case only a few months before. He had just come from Washington, DC, where President Dwight Eisenhower had been his host at a White House dinner, the high point of the emperor’s first state visit to the United States. A strong believer in the effectiveness of personal diplomacy, Haile Selassie had met with Eisenhower and his aides to put finishing touches on a military agreement that had been signed the month before and to request more bilateral economic assistance for his country. The meeting had lasted little more than an hour, but it was to shape U.S. foreign policy toward Africa generally and toward Ethiopia specifically for the two decades that followed. In the limousine, Haile Selassie rode beside Richard C. Patterson, chairman of the city’s Committee on Public Events, who remained with him throughout the official ceremonies. Also in the car were John Simmons, State Department chief of protocol, and Major General Arthur C. Trudeau, who as presidential military aide to the emperor, had Ethiopian troops under his command in Ethiopia—representatives of the State Department and the U.S. military that were to play vital roles in all of the emperor’s official relations with the United States for the rest of his life. Haile Selassie enjoyed his close-up view of the downtown canyon. He seemed especially impressed with the Woolworth Building and talked animatedly about it to the others in his car as they drove by— after all, the 57-story, 650-foot high Woolworth Building, the Cathedral of Commerce, had been the tallest in the world from 1913 until 1930, the year of Haile Selassie’s coronation. The emperor kept looking back at it as he spoke. A Lion in the Streets 3 The parade had gotten off to a late start at 10 minutes after noon from lower Manhattan’s Bowling Green, the oldest public park in the city. One of the Ethiopians in the official party joked that the tardy procession was on Ethiopian time. In the motorcade rode the emperor’s youngest son, the handsome, Cambridge-educated, 24-year-old Prince Sahle Selassie, who was noted for flying his own airplane, driving an American car, and collecting jazz records; the emperor’s stylish granddaughter, Princess Seble, who was 19 and a student at Oxford University in Great Britain; and several of Haile Selassie’s ministers of state and other members of his official touring party. Marching with the motor caravan were thousands in uniform— detachments from all branches of the military as well as from police, fire, and sanitation departments, and their bands, passing through the canyon of buildings, past Wall Street, the capital of American wealth. Prince Sahle noted there would be tons of litter to clean up, and the young prince contributed to the debris when his hat blew off his head—but as he later wrote to President Eisenhower, “luckily the photographers did not see.” 2 At the end of the ride, Haile Selassie stepped up to a platform on the city hall steps, where Patterson introduced him to Mayor Robert F. Wagner, who gave his formal and ceremonial welcome. The emperor responded in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, with warm words of thanks and appreciation, translated by the Oxford-educated chief of protocol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Endalkachew Mekonnen. Haile Selassie then surprised and pleased the mayor and a large audience by presenting three gifts from his African domain to the City of New York—two highly polished elephant tusks, capped with gold and mounted on a base of rare woods, two glinting silver-dipped spears, and a red leather warrior’s shield of intricate gold design. In return, the mayor gave the emperor the city’s medal of honor and a scroll. The royal party then drove to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, their residence during the New York visit, where the mayor gave a formal luncheon in Haile Selassie’s honor. The emperor and Mayor Wagner again made addresses, and the United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld also spoke. Formal toasts were drunk to the emperor, who responded with a toast to the City of New York. After the luncheon, Haile Selassie and his party stood in a receiving line to meet the more than 500 guests. At four o’clock the emperor went to the United Nations headquarters on the East River. Secretary General Hammarskjöld escorted him on a tour of the general assembly hall, the security council chamber, 4 The Lion of Judah in the New World and other significant offices and facilities. An informal reception was held for the emperor in the secretary general’s office on the 38th floor. This was followed by a formal UN dinner, attended by delegates of, at the time, the 60 member nations and high officials of the UN, in an atmosphere far different from the emperor’s last address to the delegates of an international peacekeeping body, almost two decades earlier. 3 Then, as Haile Selassie wrote in his autobiography, “We were present at the 16th general assembly of the League of Nations (in Geneva) on June 30, 1936, to explain the fascist invasion of Our country and the atrocities perpetrated on the people.” 4 He was the first head of state to appear before the assembly, and the only one who would ever address it. As the lonely figure of the emperor climbed the high stairs and approached the podium in the white assembly hall, Italian journalists in the gallery made such a racket of boos and catcalls that they had to be removed from the hall. Emperor Haile Selassie, an exile from his own country, which was occupied by the fascists of Benito Mussolini, had come to the League of Nations to make a final appeal for sanctions against Italy. The emperor, although fluent in French, spoke in Amharic. With calm dignity, the emperor prophetically said, “It is us today, it will be you tomorrow.” He then made his historic appeal on behalf of collective security: “Apart from the kingdom of the Lord there is not on this earth any nation that is superior to any other. Should it happen that a strong Government finds it may, with impunity, destroy a weak people, then the hour strikes for that weak people to appeal to the League of Nations to give its judgment in all freedom. God and history will remember your judgment.” 5 The League’s judgment was to do nothing meaningful—a nonaction well remembered throughout the world. But Haile Selassie, the epitome of composure in adversity, had won his place in history. A generation of Americans was to grow up remembering Ethiopia’s betrayal at the League, and the brave, black-cloaked Ethiopian ruler who asked the League to live up to its covenant. Many of the Allies’ propaganda films of World War II included scenes of the emperor’s address at Geneva, the tragic landmark of the League’s sordid last days, and in the postwar era, most textbooks on international relations or international organizations included the text of the emperor’s speech. Americans saw the images and read the words over and over again, and remembered. In one of his darkest hours, Haile Selassie had become an international celebrity. A Lion in the Streets 5 Thus, it was a poignant homecoming at the United Nations in 1954, when the emperor responded to a toast by Secretary General Hammarskjöld with these words: It is a significant moment for me when after eighteen years I again find myself in a center where are concentrated the passionate hopes of the thousands of millions of human beings who so desperately long for the assurance of peace. The years of that interval somber as they were and sacred as they remain to the memory of millions of innocent victims hold forth for us bright hope of the future. The League of Nations failed, and failed basically because of its inability to prevent aggression against my country. But neither the depth of that failure nor the intervening catastrophe could dull the perception of the need and the search for peace through collective security. Saying that the last two decades had justified, in Ethiopia’s case, her own conviction that the UN ideals will triumph, Haile Selassie reminded the delegates that his country was liberated during that period, and that it “has finally seen the rectification . . . of injustice and the vindication of the right of brothers to be reunited.” 6 The emperor could speak to the UN delegates with moral suasion. His nation would rank high on any list of strong supporters of the ideals of the United Nations. Ethiopia had signed the Declaration of the United Nations on January 1, 1941, and had been among the 50 states that had formally adopted the UN charter in San Francisco on June 26, 1945. Further, the emperor had sent approximately 1,200 Ethiopian soldiers to join the UN forces in the Korean War in 1950, and they had shown their mettle in combat. The formal events at the UN honoring Haile Selassie were auspicious and appropriate. The little emperor had earned his place center stage on the world’s proscenium and was enjoying every minute of it. * * * Perhaps it was the best of all times for Haile Selassie to come to the United States. Nine years after the end of World War II, the emperor’s speech before the League of Nations still was the defining, positive image of Ethiopia for most Americans. The emperor’s persona and familiar name added to his stature. His stalwart military bearing and 6 The Lion of Judah in the New World dress were the epitome of dignity. Haile Selassie’s solemn demeanor and magnetic dark eyes complemented his titled, mythological descent from Solomon and Sheba, and his rule of a nation of Christians was another positive factor in his reception. The exotic, catchy ring of his name made it easy to remember, and the emperor even was the subject in the lyrics of a parody of a popular song, “Shanty in an Old Shanty Town,” by Johnny Long, who averred, “I’d be just as sassy as Haile Selassie, if I were a King wouldn’t mean a thing!” Some who cheered him could remember that in the early 1930s, a common American expression was, “Well! If that’s so, then I’m Haile Selassie.” In 1954, most Americans knew little about the dark continent. Indeed, an American international banker who knew Ethiopia and his homeland well thought “there are few countries about which Americans know less.” 7 The dominant colors of maps of Africa were the colonial-designating pinks for Great Britain and blues for France. Even the U.S. State Department deferred responsibility and blame for events in Africa, and especially in sub-Saharan Africa, to the colonial empires that had scrambled to claim lands there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and still tenaciously held on to their possessions in the face of increasingly strengthening independence movements. In World War II, Allied landings and eventual victories in North Africa sparked American interest in the Maghreb, but the focus soon shifted to the more familiar terrain of Europe as General Dwight Eisenhower led his armies first into Italy and then into France. The American image of Africa was shaped more by Hollywood motion pictures that portrayed Africans stereotypically as savages, by church slide shows of Christian missionaries showing assorted tribal people in need of redemption, and by the romanticized writing of Ernest Hemmingway about big game, white hunters, and the snows of Kilimanjaro. The attractive, largely British-educated royal party that accompanied the emperor was a far cry from the Africans portrayed in Hollywood motion pictures at that time. Ethiopians generally are a handsome people, with large eyes, high cheekbones, and a proud, self-assured demeanor stemming from their unique history of not having kowtowed to colonial masters. Haile Selassie’s good-looking entourage, genetically a mix of Arab and African peoples, made a favorable impression wherever they traveled throughout the United States. The itinerary of the royal party that included acclaimed visits to racially segregated states was a timely counterpoint to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, mandating an end to segregated public schools, handed down only a few days before the emperor’s arrival in America. 8A Lion in the Streets 7 With the Cold War heating up, the emperor was a proven ally against communist aggression. Ethiopia’s Kagnew Battalion had served alongside U.S. troops in the Korean police action. In the UN, Ethiopia usually voted with the United States and against Eastern Bloc interests. Haile Selassie’s timely signing of military agreements with the United States just before his state visit placed Ethiopia on the right side in the bipolar world developing around NATO and Warsaw Pact countries. In 1954, Africa was on the brink of emerging from the shackles of colonialism, and in contrast to the uncertainty surrounding the future of French and British colonies, Ethiopia, as an independent nation, appeared stable. Neighboring Sudan was just electing a Sudanese prime minister for the first time, while, according to Ethiopian tradition, the Emperor Haile Selassie represented the 225th ruler of his line. The chaos created in British-controlled Kenya by the Mau Mau uprising was in sharp contrast to the tranquility of the highlands of Ethiopia. The stability of Ethiopia was backed by a large American presence, especially in the Point Four programs, a close relationship between Trans World Airlines and the fledgling Ethiopian Airlines that provided links between the nation’s capital and isolated towns in the highlands and the U.S. military’s operating a communications center or listening post near Asmara, in the north of the country. In his visit to the capital of wealth, the emperor was seeking investments in his country by American business. The development of Ethiopia’s natural resources, possibly including oil reserves and uranium, a blue-chip mineral at that time, sounded promising. Members of the royal party accompanying the emperor on the state visit changed in various destinations. The entourage that traveled together most often during the tour included Prince Sahle Selassie; Princess Seble Desta; Wolde Giorgis Wolde Yohannes, minister of justice and minister of the pen (next to the emperor, the most powerful man in the Ethiopian government, who had been called “the real ruler of Ethiopia” and the “Eminence Grise”); two future prime ministers: Aklilu Habte Wold, minister of foreign affairs (who had signed the United Nations charter for Ethiopia in San Francisco in 1945) and Endalkachew Mekonnen, the Oxford-educated chief of protocol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who did most of the interpreting for the emperor during the American tour; aide de camp to the emperor, Colonel Makonnen Deneke, a bald giant of a man thought by some Americans to be Haile Selassie’s personal bodyguard; John H. Spencer, an American who for many years had served as advisor to the emperor and to the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and who wrote the emperor’s numerous 8 The Lion of Judah in the New World speeches and toasts given during the tour of North America; 9 other Ethiopian officials and the emperor’s personal aides; 10 Ambassador Simonson and officers from the U.S. Department of State; 11 and the vice president of Trans World Airlines (TWA), Thomas K. Taylor. * * * The country that Haile Selassie ruled over was a mythical, mountainous land of contrasts, which was little known in the United States. Ethiopia sat as the centerpiece of the Horn of Africa, the elbow-like peninsula that juts out from the east side of the continent toward the Saudi peninsula. The region was a meeting place of the earth’s tectonic forces, a bridge between Africa and Asia, and a crossroads of civilizations and races. The Red Sea provided a slender separation between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. At its narrowest, in the straits of the Bab-el-Mandeb, meaning “Gate of Tears” in Arabic, where the Red Sea flowed into the Indian Ocean, the waterway separated Africa and Western Asia by a distance of less than 20 miles. People and goods flowed easily back and forth across this transcontinental bridge, making the Horn a yeasty mixing bowl of cultures and trade from earliest times. Most of the region is mountainous due to faults resulting from the Great Rift Valley, a giant breach in the crust of the earth where the African continent slowly splits into two parts. The Great Rift Valley extends 3,000 miles from Syria in Southwest Asia to Mozambique, south of the equator. From its Asian beginnings, the Great Rift runs southward through the Dead Sea, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Red Sea, and comes ashore in eastern Ethiopia, where it meets the East African Rift and the Aden Ridge in the Afar or the Danakil Depression. The junction of these three rifts, the Afar Triple Junction, provides a spectacular dividing line of sheer cliffs in Ethiopia’s geography. The rift cuts southwest through Ethiopia, bifurcating the country’s eastern plateau of Harar from the central plateau, the fertile highlands that extend from Asmara in the North to Addis Ababa and Jimma in the south. The rift valley in Ethiopia is marked by the Awash River and a group of large lakes in the southwest. There, the Great Rift exits Ethiopia before continuing on to Kenya and then farther south. The rift slices Ethiopia’s vast mountain massif, the nation’s dominant physical characteristic. These compact groups of steep mountains and big plateaus are studded with what Ethiopians call ambas, flat-topped hills whose badly eroded, barren sides slope down almost vertically. Theambas are surrounded by green meadows and lush vegetation of A Lion in the Streets 9 the highlands that comprise much of the country. Dense forests cover some areas with eucalyptus, firs, jacaranda, junipers, and acacia in abundance. Big game abounds where humans have not encroached on their natural habitats. It is in these grandly beautiful highlands that rise on average more than 7,000 feet from the torrid plains that enclose them that most Ethiopians have traditionally lived. Even though Ethiopia lies near the equator, the highlands’ altitude-induced climate is temperate and invigorating. The light at this altitude provides spectacular contrasts in the shades of pastel reds, creams, and pinks that bejewel this land of “enigmatic beauty.” 12 There usually is a haze that softens the colors and contours, and as an artist describes it, “the sunlight is brilliant, yet cool and soft.” 13 In this part of the roof of Africa, the highest weathered peaks are in the Simien Mountains of northwestern Ethiopia, where Mount Ras Dashan reaches an elevation just under 15,000 feet and many others exceed 13,000 feet, creating grand canyons of breathtaking splendor, some rivaling the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in size. Arising in the highlands near Lake Tana, the Abay, or Blue Nile, considered by many to be a holy river, “winds like a mainspring through the land,” carving one of the deepest and widest canyons in the world. 14 This Blue Nile Gorge makes its way on into the Sudan, where, at Khartoum, the Blue Nile joins the longer White Nile, coming from Uganda, to form the mighty Nile River that carries the water and silt that bring life to Egypt’s dry sands. The Ethiopian highlands descend in a huge escarpment to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, along the way making a transition from the lush vegetation of the plateaus of Ethiopia to brown scrub and barren desert. At the foot of the escarpment in northeastern Ethiopia lies the Afar Depression, a formidable landscape that includes the Danakil Desert, one of the hottest places year-round anywhere on earth, where temperatures reach 120 degrees. There, in the gateway to hell, active volcanoes create new earth near the lowest point in Africa, Lake Asal, which is 510 feet below sea level. In 1954, the area of Ethiopia, 471,371 square miles, was slightly larger than Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico combined. The estimated population was only 19.5 million, so overpopulation was not a problem. In normal times, without the scourges of drought and famine, the land could support the people. The highlands enjoyed a mild climate, fertile soil, and an industrious peasantry. Its people thought of it as a heaven-blessed land of plenty, although statistically it was 10 The Lion of Judah in the New World one of the poorest countries on earth. Foreign observers recognized Ethiopia’s agricultural potential and thought it capable of being the breadbasket of the Middle East. Highland farmers traditionally grew two crops a year in verdant fields that some Americans thought resembled the best agricultural lands of California’s Central Valley. Large livestock herds flourished in several regions. Abundant rain came in two waves: the little rains of March and April, and the big rains in the summer months. Over 90 percent of the people were subsistence agriculturists who still tilled small plots of land with plows drawn by two oxen. Their fields fanned out from small clusters of round, thatched roof houses called tukuls, which had thorn enclosures to keep animals penned in. Better-off peasants invested in corrugated-tin-roofed houses, a sign of modernization. Throughout the country, Ethiopian Orthodox churches, monks, nuns, and priests were seen, testimony to the deeply spiritual living faith that permeated the land. As Ethiopianist Edward Ullendorff observed, Ethiopia embraced “a complex of ethnic elements composed of a veritable mosaic of races, tribes, and linguistic groups.” 15 The people comprise more than 100 ethnic groups, each speaking a dialect of one of more than 70 languages. A national census was not taken in Ethiopia until 30 years after the emperor’s first visit to the United States in 1954, so the demographics of the nation before that time were at best educated guesses. Consensus estimates held that the Oromo and the Amhara were the largest ethnic groups, with each accounting for about one-third of the population. The Oromo were widely dispersed over large sections of the country from the southern deserts to the western and northern highlands. The Amhara, concentrated in the central highlands, dominated government and economic life during the reign of Haile Selassie. The Tigrayans inhabited Eritrea and the northern highlands of Tigray province and may have composed roughly 15 percent of the population. Smaller ethnic groups included the Gurage, the hard working business class; the Somali people who dwelt in the deserts of the east and southeast, touching the borders of Somalia and Kenya; and the Omotic, or Nilotic peoples in the lowlands of the southwest along the border with Sudan. These people were in constant interaction through trade, warfare, religious activities, migration, and intermarriage. The country was multireligious too. In the 1950s it was thought that a majority of the people was Orthodox Christian (especially the Amhara and Tigrayans), that about 40 percent were Muslim, and the rest were animist or from smaller sects. A Lion in the Streets 11 The land of these people was ancient , where humans and their ancestors had dwelt for millennia. It was in the river valleys of the Afar region of Ethiopia that paleontologists were to recover the fossilized skeletal remains of the earliest known human ancestors. Lucy, or Dinkenesh (“you are wonderful” in Amharic), sometimes called the missing link between modern humans and ape-like ancestors, was a petite, 3.2 million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis, whose skeleton was found in 1974. Lucy and her kin stood upright, lived in groups, and adapted to living in open spaces rather than in forests. 16 In 2007, Lucy, or rather her bones, began an exhibition tour to museums throughout the United States, making her the most famous Ethiopian visitor since Haile Selassie. But Lucy was a latecomer compared to her treeloving predecessor, Ardi, a female of the species Ardipithecus ramidus, who lived in a woodland Danakil, 4.4 to 5.2 million years ago. Ardi, the oldest known hominid fossil, was discovered in 1992 but was not officially recognized in the scientific community until October 2009, when the journalScience published its encomium. From the general body plans of these hominids would evolve the body plan of the genus Homo, who, from an African genesis, would inherit the earth. For those who might distrust the veracity of paleontologist evidence, Orthodox Ethiopian Church believers have their own genesis of the origins of man in their homeland. In the holy Ethiopian community of Lalibela is the grave of Adam. The whereabouts of the tomb of the Biblical Eve, however, remain a mystery. Ethiopia’s holy literature even has the recipe used in making the first man: “God took a grain of dust, a drop of water, and a puff of wind, and a bit of warmth and formed Adam.” Further, a pearl was placed in the belly of Adam that was passed on in the act of begetting to Solomon and on from generation to generation to the dynastic rulers of Ethiopia. 17 Whatever their origins, by the time of the late Stone Age, Homo sapiens were roaming back and forth across the Red Sea, mixing and mingling people of Africa and Asia. Some spoke related languages of the Afro-Asiatic language families including Omotic, Cushitic, and Semitic, all of which continue to be used in Ethiopia today. 18 Some linguists postulate that Semitic-speaking migrants from southwest Arabia settled in present day Ethiopia, bringing with them a written script called Sabaean and monumental stone architecture. Other linguists maintain the flow went the other way, from Africa to Arabia.19 By the first millennium b.c.e. , the nascent Semitic-speakers fused with Cushitic- and Omotic-speaking inhabitants to produce a culture 12 The Lion of Judah in the New World known as pre-Axumite. From its major trading center, the Red Sea port city of Adulis, the pre-Axumites established economic ties with nearby Africans, Asians to the east, and Europeans from the north. From this root, the Axumite state, one of the most powerful in ancient Africa, emerged in the highlands of southern Eritrea, Tigray, and Wollo at approximately the beginning of the Christian era. The Axumite Kingdom flourished from the fourth through sixth centuries c.e. and controlled the Red Sea coastline, southern Sudan, and southwest Arabia, in what is now Yemen. The Axumites exported gold, rhinoceros horn, ivory, incense, and obsidian to the Greeks and Egyptians, the Roman Empire, Arabia, and India. The people created a civilization with a body of written records in Ge’ez, the ancestral language that would evolve in the Middle Ages into Amharic, Tigrinya, and other Semitic languages of Ethiopia. Ge’ez was written in an indigenous Ethiopic script still used today. 20 The Axumites gave their king the titlenegus nagast (king of kings), a designation that would endure in the highlands through the 20th century. Over a 300 year period they minted coins in gold, silver, and copper, a practice unique in ancient Africa. In their capital city, Axum, they devised an original architectural style that featured stone palaces, public buildings, and, most notably, carved stone stelae as monuments to past rulers. Some of these stelae, rising more than 100 feet in height, were among the largest of the ancient world. 21 Christianity came to Axum around 330 c.e., when Ezana, the greatest Axumite king, was converted by two shipwrecked Syrian monks. King Ezana proclaimed Christianity the state religion, and it remained so well into the 20th century. In the ensuing centuries, that faith evolved into the Monophysite Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which was to play a defining role in the country’s history. The Church validated the legitimacy of the emperors and was in turn protected by them. Another enduring legacy of the Axumites is the Solomonic legend, the story of the journey of the Queen of Sheba from Axum to the court of King Solomon in ancient Israel. According to the national epic, the lineage of Axumite kings originated with Menelik I, the offspring of the union between the Queen of Sheba, known as Makeda in Ethiopia, and Solomon the wise. Royal legitimacy thereafter was derived from descent in a line of Solomonic kings. According to the legend, young Menelik took the Ark of the Covenant from the Temple in Jerusalem “in the blink of an eye” and brought it to Axum when he returned to Ethiopia. The faithful of Ethiopia believe the Ark has remained in Ethiopia ever since, providing the people a unique spiritual A Lion in the Streets 13 privilege and designating their land as the new Zion, the place of God’s dwelling. 22 The Axumite Kingdom went into eclipse during the sixth century when Sassanian Persians, the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, occupied Yemen and attacked Byzantine Egypt. The Persians so disrupted the Axumite networks of trade in the Red Sea area that the kingdom gave up its maritime ambitions and withdrew into the interior of northern Ethiopia. With its rugged topography as a deterrent to would-be attackers, and as a limiting factor to its people’s interactions with the rest of the world, Ethiopians retreated to centuries of isolation on their central plateau. The descendants of the Axumites split into two major linguistic groups of related but distinctive Semitic languages, the Amhara and the Tigray. In the complex identity of Ethiopian people, the speakers of these languages morphed into ethnic groups that have vied for hegemony of the highlands throughout modern Ethiopian history. In the seventh century, adherents of a new faith from across the Red Sea sought refuge in Ethiopia. In 615 c.e. , in the earliest days of Islam, 70 Muslims fleeing persecution by the Kurayshites in Mecca came to Axum. The Christian Axumite emperor Armah gave sanctuary to the party. This benevolence on the part of the Ethiopian ruler so touched the Prophet Muhammad that he issued a hadith abjuring jihad against Abyssinia and proclaimed that “Abyssinia is a land of justice in which no one is oppressed.” Their sojourn in Ethiopia greatly impressed these early Muslim migrants and influenced the future development of their new faith. For although Mecca, the rock of Islam, was only 250 miles away, the adherents of Islam in seeking to convert or conquer the land the Arabs called El Habesha stayed out of the highlands for the most part and populated the surrounding lowlands. Thus the benevolence of the Axumite emperor Armah brought about centuries of relatively peaceful coexistence between the two faiths. Around the 10th century, the Axumite Empire gave way to a new line of rulers, the Zagwe dynasty. It was during the reign of the most famous of the Zagwe rulers, King Lalibela (1190–1225), that the Ethiopian Church reached its peak of splendor. In the north-central village now known as Lalibela, artisans hewed 11 incredible churches out of solid rock. The churches, which rank with the major wonders of the world, are still used as sites of worship today. Legends claim that the artisans, who worked 12 hours a day cutting each church (in one piece) out of the rocks, were assisted by angels who labored during the 12 hours of the night. 2314 The Lion of Judah in the New World Sacred literature also flourished during the Middle Ages in Ethiopia. Writing in the indigenous Semitic language of Ge’ez, the language said to have been used by God when he spoke to Adam and Eve, Ethiopian priests compiled the Fetha Negast, or Laws of the Kings, the Kebra Negast, or Glory of the Kings (which tells the legendary story of Solomon and Sheba and of the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia), and the royal chronicles (which recorded and described the reigns of individual kings). There are no other indigenous documents from which so much may be learned about the Ethiopian way of life and thought. The literature’s main theme is that Ethiopians are the new chosen people of God—the new Israel—as demonstrated by the Ark of the Covenant being in Axum. 24 Although Ethiopian Christians maintained close relations with Egypt and traveled frequently to Jerusalem on pilgrimages, Europeans of the Middle Ages knew little about the African country considered a “Christian island surrounded by an Islamic sea.” 25 For Europeans, Ethiopia, one of the only Christian state outside of Europe, was a fabled land believed to be ruled by a wealthy sovereign called Prester John. The monarchs of Europe were interested in finding such a powerful Christian emperor who might aid the crusading powers against Islam. 26 Europeans, or at least the Portuguese, were soon to know much more about Ethiopia. During the Age of Discovery, Portugal developed a keen interest in Africa, and her sailors explored the continent’s shorelines. In 1497, Vasco da Gama boldly sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, and a short time later, Portuguese envoys were dispatched to Ethiopia to investigate a united Christian front against Turkish expansion in the Red Sea area. The Portuguese spent 16 productive years in Ethiopia learning about the descendants of Sheba and leaving a European imprint on the architecture of the land and other aspects of the culture. But the era of good feeling was brought to an end when frustrated Portuguese diplomats left in 1526 without obtaining an alliance. 27 The closing of the Portuguese embassy set the stage for the first successful invasion of the Ethiopian highlands by an outside conqueror. The Muslim religious and military leader Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al Ghazi, known in Ethiopia as Gragn, reigned in the area of present day Somalia. With access to Gulf of Aden ports, Gragn engaged in a lively arms trade and amassed a mighty arsenal of imported weapons. After the Portuguese left, Gragn rallied ethnically diverse Muslims possessing superior firepower in a jihad intended to break Ethiopia’s Christian power and to spread Islam. His armies overran most of the country A Lion in the Streets 15 wreaking havoc—razing churches and monasteries, burning manuscripts, taking prisoners, and collecting booty throughout the highlands.28 In one of the country’s darkest hours, Ethiopians regrouped and prayed for relief in the face of the invaders’ scourge. Relief came in the form of 400 Portuguese musketeers who landed at Massawa in 1543, scaled the escarpment, and joined the fray. Musketeer sharpshooters killed Gragn, whose death destroyed the unity of the Muslims. The defeated invaders retreated to eastern Ethiopia, where they constructed a walled capital at Harar, which has remained a center of Islamic culture ever since. 29 It took centuries for Ethiopia to recover from the material and moral losses of the invasion, and even today, Ethiopians remember the bitter war against Gragn. In the war-ravaged Ethiopian highlands, the Portuguese resumed efforts to convert the country to Roman Catholicism. They succeeded in converting two Ethiopian emperors, but the people refused to abandon their orthodox faith. Overzealous proselytization by Jesuit priests wrecked Portuguese relations with their hosts, and in 1632, King Fasiladas expelled the Jesuits and forbade Roman Catholics in the land. 30 The conflicts in the highlands during the 16th century opened the way for the great migrations of the Oromo, the most populous ethnic group in present-day Ethiopia. A Cushitic-speaking, pastoral people, they moved northwards from the far south of Ethiopia to occupy much of the center and north of the country. 31 The Oromo intermingled with local populations, descendants of the Axumites, mainly the Tigrayans in the north and the Amhara farther south. In the 18th century, the influence of the central government of Ethiopia declined, and Oromo regional rulers and kings enjoyed greater autonomy and rose to prominence in the feudal state. 32 Another architectural marvel was created in Gondar, the city that became the nation’s capital during the reign of Emperor Fasiladas in 1636. Fine castles, churches, and other buildings combining Moorish, Portuguese, Ottoman, and Mogul architectural styles that endure to this day were built during the two centuries that Gondar served as the country’s political, economic, and cultural capital. 33 By the middle of the 18th century, however, the centralizing power of the monarchy in Gondar had declined. Infighting between a succession of weak emperors and feudal lords loosed disunity and civil wars that ravaged the country for decades. Various provinces became independent of each other, and fighting broke out between different regional rulers. This era was known as the Mesafint, or the period of the judges. Emperors became figureheads, controlled by warlords. 3416 The Lion of Judah in the New World In the mid-19th century, Emperor Tewodros (Theodore), one of the most remarkable African rulers of his era, unified, for the first time, much of what is now central Ethiopia. He sought to reunite the country and modernize it and restore the glories of past Ethiopian empires. By force of arms, he brought various break-away provinces under his power. His success in making reforms throughout the land earned him the enmity of the Church and many feudal nobles. At the same time Tewodros unintentionally created a brouhaha with the British over what he felt was a royal snub by Queen Victoria, who did not reply to his letter proposing an alliance between the two countries. He chained and imprisoned the British consul and other foreigners at his court. In response, Queen Victoria sent Sir Robert Napier, commander in chief of the Bombay Army, to rescue them in 1867. 35 Napier’s British expedition to Abyssinia landed at Zula in Eritrea with an Anglo-Indian force of over 62,000 men and 36,000 animals, including 44 elephants and 5,735 camels, all shipped for the occasion. For the second time in Ethiopian history, foreign invaders successfully scaled the country’s mountain citadel and attacked in the rugged highlands. The swashbuckling Red Coats traveled more than 400 miles from the Red Sea to Tewodros’ supposedly impregnable mountain fortress at Magdala. Tewodros seemed confident that his brave warriors would prevail against his numerically superior attackers because he had a secret weapon—a great cannon, built with the help of his European prisoners, that would turn the tide of battle. When the two armies clashed on April 10, 1868, the Ethiopians eschewed their strategic fortification and bravely charged again and again down the mountain directly into the slaughtering fire of massed British artillery and infantry. Almost all of Tewodros’ men were massacred or slipped away from battle. When the Ethiopians first fired their great cannon, it exploded and cracked. The British then bombarded the fortress, and a storming party assaulted the citadel. Rather than fall into enemy hands, Tewodros committed suicide as British gunners stormed the last gate. The victorious British and Indian troops looted the fortress and shipped vast amounts of booty, much of it religious artifacts, to Great Britain. The British had no interest at that time in occupying or colonizing Ethiopia, so the expeditionary force did not stay long. Having accomplished his mission of freeing the European captives, Napier marched his troops back to the coast and sailed for home. 36 Reporting the Napier expedition for the New York Herald Tribune was young Henry Morton Stanley, probably one of the first Americans to visit Ethiopia. Stanley’s reports were the first to reach New York and A Lion in the Streets 17 London, earning him such fame as a correspondent that he later was given the opportunity to find the missionary and explorer Dr. David Livingstone (who was not really lost) in 1871—presumably the biggest newspaper scoop of the 19th century. Stanley subsequently devoted part of a book titledCoomassie and Magdala to his adventure in Ethiopia.37 Napier’s brief campaign in Abyssinia left the headless empire in chaos. Further civil wars ensued, and important nobles struggled to rule. The noble who benefited most from the British expedition was Yohannes of Tigray, whose territory Napier’s troops had crossed coming and going from the Red Sea to Magdala. As a reward for his neutrality, the British bestowed a large gift of arms on Yohannes. He was crowned Emperor Yohannes IV in 1871, and with superior firepower he dominated the central highlands, expanded the empire’s borders, and defeated foreign invaders emboldened by Napier’s victory. Wellarmed Egyptian forces were soundly beaten in 1875 and 1876, and Italians seeking to expand a colony in Eritrea met a similar fate a decade later. In 1888–1889 Mahdists, or Dervishes, from the Sudan (the ones who had beaten the British general Charles “Chinese” Gordon at Khartoum) invaded the highlands but were defeated by the Ethiopians at the battle of Metemma. This was a costly engagement, however. Yohannes was killed in March 1889 on the battlefield by a Dervish sniper, one of the last crowned heads in the world to die on the field of battle. 38 The King of Shoa, Menelik II, became emperor upon the death of Yohannes. Menelik, like his predecessor, began his rule with a large cache of imported arms. Being aware of the dangers of the scramble for Africa by European nations seeking new colonies—Italy had even scrambled into the northern region of Ethiopia in 1882, establishing a colony they called Eritrea and into neighboring Somaliland—Menelik sought protective ties with foreign powers. A disputed clause of a treaty of perpetual peace and friendship with Italy, however, led to hostilities in 1895. Expansionist leaders of the recently unified Kingdom of Italy dreamed of a second Roman Empire stretching from the Alps to the equator, and it was assumed that a show of military might would quickly bring barbarian lands and riches into an Africa Orientale Italiana. From their colonial base in Eritrea, Italian forces marched into Ethiopia and occupied much of northern Tigray before being driven back. On March 1, 1896, the Italian dream of conquest was turned into a nightmare in the mountain passes and valleys near the northern Ethiopian city of Adwa. There, Menelik massed contingents of Ethiopian warriors from throughout the empire and inflicted a resounding 18 The Lion of Judah in the New World defeat on the Italian colonial army. The Battle of Adwa put Ethiopia on the map of the modern world, and European powers hastened to establish diplomatic missions in Addis Ababa, Menelik’s new capital in the central highlands. 39 News of the battle awakened Pan-African consciousness in most of Africa, and in the United States, it inspired Marcus Garvey’s Back to Africa movement. During the last quarter of the 19th century, Menelik conducted his own scramble for outlying areas around the highlands. His conquests brought long-isolated regions under the central control of a reunited empire. The map of Greater Ethiopia as known in the 20th century was filled in by the success of Menelik’s expeditions. Not only did he change the map of Ethiopia, Menelik also altered the landscape by importing thousands of Australian eucalyptus trees that gave Addis Ababa a distinctive look and aroma. 40 It was during Menelik’s reign that official contact between Ethiopia and the United States began. In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned diplomat Robert Skinner to lead a mission to the court of the emperor of Ethiopia. 41 Skinner successfully negotiated a treaty regulating commercial relations between the two countries. Menelik was so pleased with the proceedings that he sent gifts including two lion cubs, a hyena, and two elephants’ tusks to Roosevelt. Menelik took Ethiopia into the 20th century, a more powerful and united country than he had found it upon his succession to the throne. He continued the work of his two predecessors in attempting to modernize the country, but the brunt of that burden soon fell to his successor, then known as Tafari Makonnen, who came to Menelik’s court as a youngster to learn the ways of ruling in a feudal society.


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CHAPTER 2 From Sly Fox to King of Kings

Since his preemperor days in the 1920s as Ras Tafari Makonnen, the image of the man who came to be known as Haile Selassie had flashed like a comet in the Western media and hence in the American conscience in brief multiyear intervals. He was born on July 23, 1892 in the village of Ejersa Goro in Harar Province, in eastern Ethiopia, a kingdom where an ancient feudal system was very much intact. His father, Ras Makonnen Woldemikael, was governor of Harar and a cousin and confidant of the nation’s ruler, Emperor Menelik II, and the grandson of King Sahle Selassie, who had ruled Shoa, one of the preeminent provinces, from 1813 to 1847. The illustrious Ras Makonnen, a brilliant horseman, played a leading role as a general in the Battle of Adwa, was a close friend of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud (who lived in Harar and carried out his business there), and, in 1902, attended the coronation of King Edward VII in England. In his later years, he was a trusted diplomat and de facto foreign minister. Young Tafari was educated in Harar by Orthodox priests and a French Capuchin monk before moving to Addis Ababa, the nation’s capital, where he studied at the Menelik II School for nobles. Tafari was on a fast track to be one of the country’s highest ranking nobles, but his ascent suffered a major setback when his father died suddenly of typhus in 1906. In the following years, Tafari proved to be a survivor in the midst of court intrigue and dynastic dirty tricks. He overcame major roadblocks to be named successively Lij, Dejazmatch, and 20 The Lion of Judah in the New World Ras (royal titles that denoted increasing responsibilities) and served as governor of Harar and Kaffa provinces. He proved adept at diplomacy and emerged as a leader of progressive reformers. In 1911, Tafari married another royal, Woizero Menen Asfaw, granddaughter of King Michael of Wollo, a major highlands province. During World War I, the future emperor supported the British though his country’s rulers at that time were convinced the Germans would win. When Emperor Menelik’s health began to fail in 1909, a power struggle ensued between rival factions of would-be successors. To restore calm, Menelik named his grandson Lij Iyasu Michael as his imperial successor. Although Iyasu was never crowned emperor, he was the supreme ruler from 1911 to 1916. During that time, his erratic behavior did not endear him to the nobility, the church hierarchy, or the people. Iyasu showed blatant disrespect for government elders and Christian traditions and was a notorious womanizer. Worst of all, it was rumored that he had secretly converted to Islam. After Menelik’s death, the aristocrats turned against Iyasu, who was declared an apostate by the archbishop of the Ethiopian Church and removed from office. Tafari, supported by both progressive and conservative factions of the nobility, was suddenly in center stage of a new power arrangement. In 1916, Abuna Matteos, head of the Coptic Church in Ethiopia, proclaimed the late Emperor Menelik’s daughter, Zauditu, empress, the first woman to ascend the throne since the Queen of Sheba, and the progressive Ras Tafari, all of 24-years old, was proclaimed heir to the throne and regent and was the de facto ruler of the Empire. 1 Immediately after Tafari was installed as crown prince, he sent a letter to “His Excellency Doctor Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States” on January 12, 1917, and assured President Wilson that the friendship between the two countries “will expand and endure in the future.” 2 During his regency, Tafari developed a policy of cautious modernization. The first ruler of his country, at least since Axumite times, to speak a European language, French, Tafari was in charge of foreign affairs and matters connected with foreigners. He employed White Russian officers to train his military, and in 1917, the regent established an Imperial Bodyguard, a modern force composed largely of Ethiopians who had served with the British in Kenya or with the Italians in Libya. A short time later, the Bodyguard received training from a Belgian military mission. At the end of World War I, Tafari dispatched diplomatic missions to the victorious Allies in Europe and to the United States congratulating them upon their military triumph. 3From Sly Fox to King of Kings 21 To gain international recognition for his nation, the regent formally applied to join the League of Nations in 1919, but Ethiopia’s admission initially was rejected because of concerns about its slavery, slave trade, and arms trade. Italy and Great Britain led the opposition, implying that independent Ethiopia was not yet civilized enough to join an international organization of free nations. Britain demanded a League campaign against pockets of slavery that continued to exist in Africa, one of which was in Ethiopia. In reply, Tafari pointed out that his government was making progress in ending slavery and the slave trade. 4 On September 28, 1923, Ethiopia finally was admitted to the League by unanimous vote but on the condition that Ethiopia strictly apply existing conventions prohibiting slavery. Although an old-guard noble grumbled “we are now under the evil eye of the foreigner,” 5 the Ethiopian public rejoiced, according to the crown prince, because “the people thought that the Covenant of the League would protect Ethiopia from attack.” 6 This overly optimistic presumption about the League’s ability to preserve world peace would not long endure, but Tafari’s accomplishment in gaining League membership and its popular acceptance by the public despite vocal opposition at home and abroad illustrate what an effective politician he was. Time and again in his rise to power, the ras-regent was to outsmart, outmaneuver, and outwait the xenophobic, isolationist conservatives who stood in his way. His political skills earned the young ras the name “the sly fox of Harar.” In 1922, the sly fox had become a flying fox when Tafari made a dramatic break from long-standing tradition by traveling abroad—the first time an Ethiopian emperor or heir to the throne had left his country. Then, the regent had crossed the Red Sea to the British protectorate of Aden (present-day Yemen), where he had his first ride in an airplane at a Royal Air Force air show. Thereafter, Tafari delighted in flying all over the world. He established the Ethiopian Air Force in 1929 and built rudimentary airports in Addis Ababa and in eight other towns. In 1924 the young regent broke into world headlines by undertaking a well-publicized four-and-a-half month tour of Europe, Egypt, and the holy sites in Jerusalem “to see the prosperity” of their countries, “the good fortune and riches of their people, the beauty of their cities, and the wisdom and knowledge of their scholars.” More practically, Ras Tafari hoped to observe some aspects of European civilization that Ethiopia might copy and benefit from and to find a sea-port, 7 or at least a free port on the coast of one of the neighboring colonial territories. The latter idea was an illusion of grandeur, given the cast of wily, tightfisted colonial leaders he would be dealing with. 22 The Lion of Judah in the New World Many Ethiopian noblemen were not impressed by the crown prince’s stated goals for his trip and opposed the overseas tour. The regent, however, already had demonstrated his adaptability in forging new paths and overcoming, dodging, or otherwise getting around the opposition of Ethiopia’s feudal aristocracy, and he went ahead with his travel plans. Before beginning his 1924 tour, Ras Tafari issued new and comprehensive laws about arms 8 and slavery, 9 a clever public relations ploy assuring a positive start to his mission in the eyes of the press. The media lavished its attention on the charismatic young nobleman and his entourage from an exotic, storied land. How could they do otherwise to an official party whose men wore the traditional white shawls, calledshammas, jodhpurs, black velvet cloaks, and great green pith helmets and who included in their traveling menagerie six lions and four zebras that were given as gifts to heads of state and zoos along the way? Wherever he went, the press and public were fascinated by Ras Tafari’s appearance. European newspapers referred to him as “the thoughtful Prince” with an extraordinarily “handsome face, a fine hawkish nose, and large, gleaming eyes . . . “agreeable, intelligent, and appreciative of courtesy, a person of strikingly refined appearance.” He was described as having “the appearance of a deity receiving homage . . . serenely unmoved by the pomp of his welcome.” The regent’s refined features were contrasted to those of others in his party that were described as “burly and fierce looking” by reporters unaccustomed to writing about visiting Africans. The Ethiopian royal party made Paris the hub of their grand tour of Europe that, in addition to France, included visits to Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden (by way of Amsterdam and Hamburg), Italy, Great Britain, Switzerland (to visit the Geneva headquarters of the League of Nations), and Greece. In addition to personal head of state diplomacy, the ras-regent and his courtiers enjoyed visiting major tourist attractions, partaking of nightlife, and shopping. Among Ras Tafari’s most notable purchases were two automobiles, a stock of fine wines, and £1,000 worth of goods from Harrod’s. More important to the crown prince were his visits to schools, universities, social service centers, and hospitals. 10 Cambridge University awarded Ras Tafari an honorary doctor of law degree in recognition of his plans to establish schools to train young Ethiopians in the paths of service. The university vicechancellor, using the hyperbole common on such occasions, praised the regent as possessing “knowledge exceeding that of orientals and Egyptians” and as one who explored “ancient and modern knowledge” From Sly Fox to King of Kings 23 and studied “all the ancient Christian traditions” as well as modern science. The Cambridge degree was the first of many honorary doctorates that the emperor would receive in his later world travels. The crown prince was received with pomp and circumstance at all stops on his itinerary but especially by the flourishing royalty in Cairo, Brussels, Luxembourg, Stockholm, Rome, London, and Athens. Belgium’s King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth may well have described to their young guest the ticker-tape parade welcoming them to New York City in 1919, the first royalty so honored. Although Ras Tafari was disappointed by what he perceived to be a lack of proper respect for his party and by a “lack of warmth” by British leaders, 11 the regent recognized the success of his tour as an international public relations coup. Under pressure from the British establishment, King George V bestowed upon Ras Tafari the Grand Cross of the Order of Bath, the highest honor available for visiting royalty. As another gesture of good will, the English king returned to Ethiopia one of two imperial crowns belonging to Emperor Tewodros, brought to Britain in 1868 by the Napier expedition, arguably the 19th century’s most swashbuckling armed excursions into Africa by a colonial power. Overlooked in the diplomatic niceties and excitement about the King of England’s returning some of the loot purloined by Lord Napier was the fact that a better crown of Theodore and other royal trappings from Ethiopia remained in British museums. Nevertheless, Ras Tafari accepted the action of King George as a mark of friendship and expressed his “profoundly sincere gratitude”12 —adding to the gracious stature of the crown prince in the eyes of the public. Indeed, the regent’s tour was sometimes compared to that of Peter the Great to Western Europe two centuries earlier. Amidst the pomp and splendor of official state ceremonies in the summer heat of Europe, the regent’s requests for a seaport received a chilly reception. In Paris, London, and Rome, political leaders politely listened to Haile Selassie discuss the sources of the Nile, but they avoided or dismissed out of hand the crown prince’s proposals for access to the sea that would be acceptable to the Ethiopians. In Rome, Ras Tafari had an audience with Pope Pius XI and met the new fascist premier of Italy, Benito Mussolini, who gave him a “hearty slap on the back and the verbal promise of financial aid.” 13 The rasregent thought Mussolini physically impressive and “theatrical.” 14 The subsequent interaction of these two international actors would not be so cordial. Other than the crown of Theodore and his Cambridge degree, the rasregent did not have much from his grand tour to show his detractors 24 The Lion of Judah in the New World back home, but he had learned an important lesson in the public relations benefit of good press coverage. The international media had made Ras Tafari a popular hero by the time he returned to adoring crowds in Addis Ababa. According to first hand observers, “He was given a really extraordinary welcome.” 15 Empress Zauditu praised Ras Tafari for enduring what she called “the turbulence of the sea and the heat of the sun” for the prosperity of the country and the good fortune of the people. The crown prince returned to a capital seething with intrigue. Various factions of the aristocracy sought to discredit Ras Tafari or to remove him from power. Some of the regent’s governmental colleagues considered his trip an expensive failure with no diplomatic gains to show for it. Such critics did not see the value of royal travel in encouraging Ethiopian society to become aware of the rest of the world as well as to adopt foreign inventions. 16 For the next six years, the crown prince fought for his political life, most notably in the “palace conspiracy,” and survived the struggle—again demonstrating his superlative skills as a master politician in a feudal setting. By 1928 he had gained such power that the empress was forced by the military to proclaim him “His Majesty King Tafari Makonnen, Heir to the throne of Ethiopia and Regent Plenipotentiary,” a new royal title. As king, Tafari successfully suppressed rebels and challenges to his throne. When Empress Zauditu died unexpectedly in April 1930, the stage was set for the coronation of the 37-year-old Tafari as the new emperor. 17 Set the stage was exactly what the heir to the throne did. Determined to impress foreign guests that Ethiopia was an up-to-date, civilized nation, King Tafari personally supervised preparations for practically all aspects of the coronation. He directed the installation of triumphal arches and newly paved roads with street lights, sidewalks, and electric and telephone lines to dress up Addis Ababa for the 10-day round of ceremonies, feasting, and dancing. Invitations to this coming-outparty for a rejuvenated and vital Ethiopia were sent to seven monarchs and six presidents (including President Herbert Hoover of the United States)18 who designated appropriate envoys to represent them, including nobility (the Duke of Gloucester for Britain, the Prince of Udine for Italy, and Marshal Franchet d’Esperey for France), colonial governors, and high-ranking military leaders. Ambassador Herman Murray Jacoby and Brigadier General W. W. Harts represented the United States and were treated with marked courtesy. Invitations also went out to important Ethiopians and foreign residents of the country and to the international press corps. 19 Most of the guests who were invited, some From Sly Fox to King of Kings 25 700 of them, came to the celebration. Beribboned and beplumed royal visitors attended the coronation ceremony that Tafari had modeled on the 1902 Coronation of King Edward VII in London (that Tafari’s father, Ras Makonnen, had attended). What they witnessed was one of the first demonstrations of African nationalism. There was confusion over the country’s name, however. In the 1930s, the nation was widely known to the world as “Abyssinia,” but the inhabitants preferred the historical “Ethiopia,” which eventually prevailed in the media. Early in the morning of November 2, 1930, in Saint George’s Cathedral, Abuna Kyril, the head of the Ethiopian church, anointed the head of King Tafari Makonnen with seven differently scented ointments of ancient prescription and placed on it the jewel-studded, golden, triple crown of Ethiopia, proclaiming him “His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Elect of God, King of Kings and Emperor of Ethiopia” (titles chosen by Tafari for the occasion). His coronation, with its chanting of ancient solemn words, was, in a very special sense, a sacramental act for him, the sacred relationship that now would define his existence. Beneath the immemorial rounded ceiling of Saint George’s Cathedral, the king of kings sat on his throne. Then the emperor joined his newly coroneted Empress for a grand tour of the cathedral. They were escorted by bishops and priests and other high dignitaries carrying palm branches and chanting, “Blessed be the king of Israel.” The guests had gamely sat through a 90-minute mass in Ge’ez, the ancient Ethiopian liturgical language. Journalist Irene Ravensdale described Haile Selassie in his purple and gold coronation robes as looking exactly like a processional statue from Seville. Colored photographs in National Geographic ’s expansive 70-page coverage of the coronation confirmed her impression. The royal celebrations were also extensively reported in the Illustrated London News and other British publications of the day. When the king-emperor emerged from the cathedral, a military band struck up the newly composed national anthem, a fanfare of a thousand trumpets sounded, and a 101-gun salute boomed across the capital. Ethiopia’s great men made formal obeisance to the new monarch prior to Haile Selassie and Empress Menen’s riding the two miles from the cathedral to the royal palace in a state coach before the adoring masses. 20 That evening a great dinner was held in the Imperial Palace, followed by a fireworks display and a military parade at Jan Hoy Meda, the Royal Field, with the capital’s vast race track. Many of those in attendance received lavish gifts. The newly crowned emperor even sent a gold-encased Bible to an American bishop who had not attended 26 The Lion of Judah in the New World the coronation but who had dedicated a prayer to the emperor on the day of the coronation. The coronation made the Addis Ababa regime credible to Europeans, whose presence was evidence for Ethiopians that the world recognized their nation’s sovereignty and independence. The emperor’s acceptance by royal families of Europe impressed Ethiopians, while, at the same time, Haile Selassie sought to impress European guests that Ethiopia was an up-to-date, civilized nation. In this he was successful, for foreign guests were impressed with the Ethiopians’ mounting “excellent ceremonies, full of decorum, pomp and circumstance, and superb hospitality.” 21 One European, however, cast a distasteful eye on the events. The young Evelyn Waugh reporting “the Coronation of the Emperor Haile Selassie” as a special correspondent for The Times thought the spruced-up Addis Ababa was a Potemkin village, although “the true state of affairs inevitably appeared from time to time. Addis Ababa was little more than a ramshackle town, a shabby, dirty, dusty place, with lepers and eunuchs and slaves. It had a palace with two rows of lions in the drive, one hotel, a railway station, a post-office, two cinemas, a radio transmitting station, a few plaster-covered Indian shops, and a collection of mud, wattle, and corrugated-iron huts.” 22 It was all a clever deception to persuade world opinion that Ethiopia was a civilized nation, according to Waugh, and the coronation was the final move in a long and well-planned strategy to pull the wool over the eyes by Haile Selassie. Waugh’s strategy, on the other hand, was to profit from his adventures in Abyssinia, and this he did by publishing a travel book,Remote People,23 in 1931 and, later, his satirical novels, Black Mischief24 and Scoop . 25 In the Caribbean, the coronation marked the beginning of a new persuasion. In Jamaica, where Marcus Garvey’s return to Africa movement was by then well established, the islanders saw the coronation as no less than the realization of the biblical prophecy that “Kings would come out of Africa.” They rejected traditional European missionarybased Christianity and created a new religion of their own. The new Rastafarians accorded the emperor the rank of divinity, the Messiah of African redemption. 26 Riding the crest of the world’s attention to the coronation, Haile Selassie was votedTime magazine’s Man of the Year in 1930, and the emperor began a long and proactive reign that had, as one raison d’être, the task of convincing the world that improvements were being made in Ethiopia. Continuing the unfinished work of his predecessors From Sly Fox to King of Kings 27 Tewodros, Yohannes, and Menelik, the new emperor sought to build a modern nation-state out of the mosaic of races, religions, tribes, and linguistic groups. Haile Selassie was noted for his capacity for hard work, a capacious memory, and a mastery of detail. The emperor also had a remarkable ability to adapt himself to changing circumstances. 27 He vowed to safeguard the nation’s independence and to rule as an absolute monarch. He backed up his authority with “modern national organizations of coercion.” 28 As his first major act as emperor, Haile Selassie issued a constitution in July 1931, ushering in a new era for his country. Although the document was a glorified apologia for the divine right of kings, or at least the Ethiopian one, for the outside world, the constitution was evidence of Ethiopia’s progress under its new emperor. There was a two-house legislature, but the same constitution declared the emperor’s person to be sacred and his power indisputable. The formal signing of the new constitution was almost as spectacular an event as the coronation. Rases and other members of the Ethiopian nobility were required to come to Addis Ababa to witness the signing of the historic document, and they were instructed to bring their robes and coronets. 29 The Rases were sworn in as the first senators of the empire in the new upper house of parliament. The event was marked with lavish entertainment and great banquets. The purported sacred, omnipotent emperor surrounded himself with astute foreign advisors and continued to outmaneuver any would-be opponents to his reign—including the one-time ruler Lij Iyasu, who reappeared and was promptly imprisoned in gold chains in a remote mountain village, where he remained the rest of his life. Haile Selassie arranged strategic marriages for his children and named relatives and allies to govern the provinces. Life seemed to be going as planned for Ethiopia’s ruler, but the heady glow of the accolades of the coronation and the emperor’s new clothes were to be short lived. Perhaps Haile Selassie had been too successful in calling attention to the riches of his nation. The strutting leader of a European colonial power with a grudge against Ethiopia cast a covetous eye on the kingdom in the Horn and set about to conquer it by force of arms. Fascist Italy had taken envious notice of the Abyssinian phenomenon.


Messenger: Eleazar Sent: 3/6/2013 11:47:47 PM
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CHAPTER 3 Mussolini and the Legacy of Adwa

By the time Haile Selassie became emperor, a fascist government, led by Benito Mussolini, was firmly in place in Italy, seething with a resurgence of imperial ambitions and determination to avenge an unforgotten humiliation by Ethiopia at the close of the 19th century. On March 1, 1896, the Ethiopian emperor Menilek II had inflicted a resounding defeat on an Italian colonial army at the Battle of Adwa, perhaps the greatest victory of an African over a European force since the time of Hannibal. A French observer at the time commented that the world would have to find a place for Ethiopia, the African continent’s only independent state. 1 Indeed, the defeat of the Italians assured Ethiopian independence during the age of European empire-building and the scramble for Africa in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 2 Italian feelings of inferiority festered in subsequent years. The country’s humiliation left a scar on the Italian psyche, the Adwa complex. Jingoistic Italians sought “a capable and wide revenge” for the only defeat inflicted on a European power in the heyday of imperialism. When Mussolini came to power in 1922, Adwa still was not avenged, a task many expected him to fulfill.3 By 1934 the Italians had colonies on generally desolate real estate in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica (in present day Libya) and in Eritrea to the north and in Italian Somaliland to the east of Ethiopia. The Italians used Eritrean askari, colonial troops under Italian officers, to defeat Mussolini and the Legacy of Adwa 29 Arab nationalists in Libya during the 1920s and early 1930s, and they would not hesitate to bring Libyan soldiers to fight in the Horn of Africa. In 1935, Italy mobilized its ground forces. With war looming, troopships brought enthusiastic Italians conscripts to Eritrea and Somaliland to take part in a civilizing mission. The fascist’s proximity to the lush highlands of Ethiopia whetted their appetite for an expanded colonial empire, where a surplus Italian population could be settled and attention diverted from failed domestic policies. Mussolini, ever mindful of his image in the world’s press, looked for a legitimizing reason to attack Ethiopia. When Mussolini, the Roman Wolf, was prepared to launch an offensive from his two redoubts in the Horn, he drummed up a casus belli at an oasis in a disputed boundary area between Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland. The December 1934 Welwel incident, a low-level military engagement that cost more Ethiopian than Italian lives, produced unreasonable fascist demands for apologies and reparations. 4 The Ethiopians took the matter to the League of Nations, which worked to avoid hostilities.5 Mussolini’s brash warmongering was in marked contrast to the gracious Emperor Haile Selassie’s appeals for peace. 6 The fascist’s aggression outraged and galvanized blacks throughout the world. As the American historian John Hope Franklin noted, Ethiopia was seen by Africans in Africa and in the diaspora as “the sole remaining pride of Africans and Negros in all parts of the world.” 7 Twenty-thousand African Americans demonstrated in New York in the summer of 1935 in support of the Ethiopian cause. Haile Selassie, however, was denied an entry visa to the United States to prevent him from taking his case directly to the American public and garnering support. On August 24, 1935, the U.S. Congress passed a Neutrality Act that placed an embargo on the supply of arms to Ethiopia or Italy, which actually punished Ethiopia, because Italy was already well armed. The United States also abstained from imposing an oil embargo on fascist Italy, which might have had a more practical effect on the fascists. In 1936, Ethiopia requested the United States to uphold the KellogBriand Pact, a multinational treaty that prohibited the use of war as “an instrument of national policy.” 8 The U.S. government refused the request and refrained from supporting Ethiopia, an obvious victim of aggression. The Kellog-Briand Pact established international norms stating that the threat or use of military force in contravention of international law, as well as the territorial acquisitions resulting from it, were unlawful. Unfortunately for the world of the 1930s, Italy, Germany, and Japan had not ratified the treaty and did not feel bound by its provisions. 30 The Lion of Judah in the New World The League ultimately appeased Italy at the expense of Ethiopia, 9 however, and Britain and France, intent on keeping the Italians from aligning with Nazi Germany, were persuaded to give the aggrieved Mussolini a free hand in Ethiopia. So emboldened, he struck. At dawn on October 3, 1935, one hundred thousand Italian troops commanded by General Emilio de Bono crossed the Eritrean frontier in a three-pronged attack. A cocky, strutting Mussolini announced his declaration of war from the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia in Rome. The superior firepower of the Italians’ planes, tanks, armored cars, and artillery—and the use of the mustard gas, described by the emperor with the French term yperite, against barefoot Ethiopian soldiers, some armed with swords and shields—quickly turned the tide of battle.10 The Ethiopians put up a good fight, but within six months, they were overwhelmed. 11 De Bono captured Adwa and, shortly thereafter, Axum, which he entered riding a white horse. The Battle of Maychew on March 31, 1936 was decisive. Haile Selassie and the remnants of his army retreated to Addis Ababa on the last day of April. 12 There, a council of royal advisors debated whether Haile Selassie should retreat to a new, remote capital and lead armed resistance against the Italians or whether he should leave the country and continue to present Ethiopia’s cause before the League of Nations and in Europe. The council voted 21 to 3 in favor of the emperor departing. On the third of May, the emperor, his family, and a small entourage fled Ethiopia, taking the train to the French colonial port of Djibouti, where they sailed on the British cruiser HMS Enterprise for life in exile. They stopped in Jerusalem, where the royal family had a residence and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church maintained a monastery near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Two days later, Marshal Pietro Badoglio led Italian troops into Addis Ababa. In Rome on the evening of May 9, Mussolini declared Ethiopia an Italian province and proclaimed King Vittorio Emmanuele III emperor of Ethiopia before a cheering crowd of almost half a million at the Palazo Venezia. Aglow in victory, the Italian people celebrated, and Mussolini and his fascists enjoyed the height of their popularity. 13 Haile Selassie and his party continued onward through the “ItalianinfestedMare Mediterranean ” to Gibraltar on another cruiser, the HMS Capetown . Eventually they arrived on June 3 in Southampton on the Orient Line SteamerOrford . 14 The British Government did not give the emperor an official welcome, and he was clearly an unofficial guest in the country. Hundreds of antifascists, however, chose to make their presence felt by thronging the docks upon Haile Selassie’s arrival in Mussolini and the Legacy of Adwa 31 England. In London’s Waterloo Station, he received a tumultuous welcome, and friendly crowds cheered and paid their respects at the various places he visited. 15 Later in the month the emperor made his memorable but futile last appeal for collective security at the League in Geneva. 16 The speech stung the world’s conscience, and the emperor of Ethiopia was toasted and hailed around the world by antifascists. Time magazine again named him Man of the Year, the second time he had been so honored in six years. After Haile Selassie’s speech at the League, societies dedicated to the support of Ethiopia were founded in Great Britain, the United States, Holland, and a number of other democratic countries. British suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst’s pro-Ethiopian weekly the New Times and Ethiopian News was widely read in Great Britain and quoted in African publications. Throughout Africa, the war inspired Pan-African awareness, and Jomo Kenyatta, of Kenya, and other Africans in Britain founded the International African Friends of Abyssinia. In the United States, the Voice of Ethiopia that had a large readership among African Americans was started by an Ethiopian medical doctor, Melaku Bayen. 17 Most of the nations of the world recognized Italy’s claim over Ethiopian sovereignty, but the United States, the Soviet Union, Mexico, New Zealand, and Haiti refused to recognize the fascist conquest. Although the Italians had proclaimed a new fascist empire, Ethiopia was hardly conquered and pacified. Many parts of the countryside remained outside Italian control and would remain so for the duration of the occupation. Major urban areas were occupied by Italian troops, but rural areas were restive and were the scene of guerrilla actions. During his exile in Great Britain from 1936 through 1940, Haile Selassie kept his crown in a bank vault and made his home in London and in Bath, where he purchased Fairfield House. He complained of being financially strapped, but he turned down the Texas Centennial Exhibition’s offer of $100,000 for a two-week appearance in Dallas. 18 From Britain, the emperor continued to counter Italian propaganda as to the state of Ethiopian resistance and the legality of the occupation. He spent much of his time handwriting his autobiography in Amharic. Many Britons were outraged by the betrayal of Ethiopia by the League of Nations in the mid-1930s, but nevertheless, the government was reluctant to give the emperor recognition. Indeed, some British colonial officers had “a great deal of sympathy for the Italian settlers and administrators.”19 With most European leaders still in a colonial powers mindset, Haile Selassie turned his attention to the United States, a 32 The Lion of Judah in the New World country that he had long trusted for having neither imperial ambitions nor territorial designs on African lands. His determination to broadcast a Christmas day 1936 radio message to the American people on the BBC demonstrated the seriousness of his predilection. 20 On the way to the studios, the emperor’s taxi was in an accident, and Haile Selassie fractured his knee. Nevertheless, he delivered the speech as expected. He ended his broadcast with “People of America! I wish you a merry Christmas. I plead with you to remember in your prayers all those weak and endangered peoples who look to the flags of the free nations with confidence, hoping to discern the star which will announce their peace and future security.” Life looked bleak and at its nadir for the little king, who had been stripped of his throne and forced into exile. Haile Selassie could ponder Mussolini’s occupation of his homeland in light of Whittier’s axiom that all revenge is a crime, but there was no court of international law to punish the Italians for their revenge of Adwa. How could the deposed ruler survive in such circumstances? Was the short-lived reign of Ethiopia’s king of kings to end so ingloriously? Was there any chance that he might attempt to regain his throne?


Messenger: Eleazar Sent: 3/6/2013 11:48:45 PM
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CHAPTER 4 Liberation under the Shadow of Britain

The official British attitude of indifference toward Ethiopia changed when Italy declared war on Great Britain on June 10, 1940, and the British allowed the emperor to fly to the Sudan to take part in the liberation campaign to free the Italian colonies. A fortnight after the declaration of war, Haile Selassie flew in a Sunderland flying boat over France and landed at Malta, Alexandria, Luxor, and Wadi Halfa before arriving by train in Khartoum. In the men’s room at the airport in Alexandria, he donned his uniform as emperor and commander of the Ethiopian army. In the emperor’s new clothes, Haile Selassie spent much time patiently waiting for the British commanders to organize fighting forces combining Ethiopian guerrillas with British officers and noncommissioned offers (NCOs). The emperor was half-affectionately called the “little man” by the British while biding his time for half a year in Sudan. 1 In the face of this inaction and frustration, he remained “dignified, mild, and courteous.” 2 On July 8, Haile Selassie issued a proclamation, to the people of Ethiopia, declaring that “from today, Great Britain grants us the aid of her incomparable military might, to win back our entire independence.” The aid was slow in arriving, but finally the British and their allies were prepared for action on the Sudanese-Ethiopian border. In the early years of World War II, the battered Allies needed a success on the battlefield to boost their spirits, and they got one in East Africa in early 1941—with significant help from Haile Selassie and 34 The Lion of Judah in the New World Ethiopian guerrilla forces. On January 23, 1941, the emperor, accompanied by Major Orde Wingate, crossed from Sudan into Ethiopia at the head of the Gideon Force, a small, eclectic brigade of British and Ethiopian troops, accompanied by 15,000 camels laden with arms and ammunition. Joining forces in Gojam with the Patriots, as the guerrillas inside Ethiopia were called, this 300-man Ethio-British force formed the center of a three-pronged advance, with a British and British- Indian army in the north forcing its way from Sudan into Eritrea, and a British and South African army in the south advancing from Kenya into Italian Somalia. The Italians, attacked from all sides by Ethiopian and Allied forces, and harassed internally by the Patriot army, collapsed. Gideon Force, operating in some of the geographically most difficult terrain, brought renown to Wingate and his unorthodox tactics. Wingate was later to gain even greater fame during World War II in Burma with other irregulars, the Chindits. Allied victories enabled Haile Selassie to triumphantly reenter Addis Ababa and reclaim his throne on May 5, 1941, five years to the day after the Italian had taken the city. President Franklin Roosevelt was among the first world leaders to congratulate the emperor upon his return to power. The Allied offensive swept the Italians out of Ethiopia and the Horn within a matter of months—the first victory of the Allies in World War II. Ironically, the British, in accepting the surrender of Italian forces in Addis Ababa, were a party to the first act in the decolonization of the European empires that was to take place over the next 35 years. Following the liberation of Ethiopia, the country was placed unilaterally under British military administration, an Occupied Enemy Territory Administration run from Nairobi, a center of colonial and white-settler rule. Haile Selassie sought to consolidate his rule, often frustrated by the short reins allowed him by the British, who were still fighting a war in Africa. The virtual total curtailment of national sovereignty by the British military administration was accepted by the emperor because he had effectively no way to object. Haile Selassie had reason to be wary of British intentions. During the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration, some British officials sought to partition Ethiopia. In the north there were plans to unite parts of Tigray with the adjacent highlands of Eritrea to form a new state under British protection. In the southeast the British government proposed incorporating the already British-occupied Ogaden with the Britishoccupied Somalia, to create a Greater Somalia, under British trusteeship. British officials also for a time envisaged the partition of Eritrea, with the western portion annexed to the then Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. 3Liberation under the Shadow of Britain 35 While the emperor chafed under British military control of his kingdom and the former Africa Orientale Italiana, he continued a charm offensive aimed at America, by then in the war, and especially President Franklin Roosevelt. In letters to the president, Haile Selassie kept Roosevelt apprised of his continuing problems with the British and sought American financial and military assistance and advisors. Roosevelt replied to a 1942 letter with heartening words: It is a source of much satisfaction to me and to the people of the United States that your country, which fought so courageously against a ruthless enemy, has regained its independence and selfgovernment. The steadfast friendship of the American people and their sympathy with you in your period of trial will continue to be manifest during the days of reconstruction now facing your country. 4 Solace of sorts came to Haile Selassie in late 1942 when the United States opened a lend-lease center in Eritrea and increasingly played a more important role in Ethiopia. The opening of relations with the United States enabled the Ethiopian government to begin to free itself from dependence on Great Britain. The emperor received moral support from the United States, a limited amount of technical assistance, and promises of more substantial aid. This ultimately led to the signing of a mutual aid agreement between the United States and Ethiopia on August 9, 1943. The agreement, “planned in Washington, agreed to by Washington, and condoned by London,” was a watershed in Ethiopian diplomatic, social, and economic history. 5 The new role of the United States as the paramount economic power in the Horn and the Middle East generated friction with Great Britain. The Allies’ concern with defeating the Axis powers loomed larger, however, than American rhetorical anticolonialism or British imperial ambitions. As Wm. Roger Louis described it, the “historic antagonism between Britain and the United States continued to exist along with the spirit of cooperation engendered by the war.” 6 Ethiopia and the United States reestablished diplomatic relations in 1943, and Ethiopia, for the first time, sent a resident minister to Washington, DC. The following year Haile Selassie, in recognition of American support for Ethiopia, gave the United States full title to a handsome 10-acre compound near the edge of town to replace the old legation in downtown Addis Ababa. The emperor frequently used diplomatic connections there and in Washington to underscore Ethiopia’s commitment to the war effort and to the fledgling United Nations. 36 The Lion of Judah in the New World Emboldened by the American presence, the Ethiopian government demanded termination of its 1942 agreement with Britain that had set up the benighted Occupied Enemy Territory Administration. Concord between London and Washington set the stage for a new agreement in Ethiopia and deprived the emperor of diplomatic leverage with which to play the two powers against each other. The ensuing AngloEthiopian Agreement of 1944, which provided the Ethiopian government with much greater leeway to manage its internal affairs, was considered generally a triumph for Ethiopia. 7 Any British colonial aspirations about Ethiopia were abandoned with the end of World War II and with the coming to power of a new Labour government in Britain, which had different ideas about empire. Haile Selassie enjoyed a closer relationship to the United States and began to drop hints that he would like to meet President Roosevelt. His wish came true when FDR went to the Yalta Conference in February 1945. On his return voyage from the Black Sea resort meeting with Churchill and Stalin in the Soviet Union, the president, on board the heavy cruiser USS Quincy, stopped at Great Bitter Lake off the Egyptian coast. There, on February 13 and 14, he held successive one-hour port-side chats with the three kings—King Farouk of Egypt, King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, and the king of kings, Emperor Haile Selassie (on ornate, Persian rugs just beyond the second eight-inch gun turret). The USS Quincy was a poignant wartime meeting site for heads of states. The original heavy cruiser USS Quincy had been sunk by the Japanese Navy in the Solomon Islands in 1942. A successor cruiser with the same name was built in Quincy, Massachusetts, and commissioned in December 1943. By the time of the meeting in Bitter Lake, the Quincy had already taken part in several campaigns in the European theater and was to continue on to the Pacific, where it would establish a distinguished record in fighting the Japanese. Getting the emperor to the rendezvous turned out to be a comedy of manners. A U.S. Air Force DC-3 was sent to Addis Ababa to fly Haile Selassie to Cairo—unbeknown to the emperor’s British handlers. The noise of the plane’s 5:00a.m. takeoff rudely awakened Robert Howe, the British minister in Addis Ababa, whose permission was supposed to be granted for such a departure. While grumbling about American secrecy, Howe hurriedly cabled news of the Bitter Lake meeting to Churchill, who not to be outdone diplomatically by Roosevelt, flew from Athens to meet Haile Selassie before he left Cairo. Their first faceto-face meeting was short but not sweet. It was described as “cold and perfunctory . . . more symbolic than substantive.” The emperor did Liberation under the Shadow of Britain 37 cadge a Rolls Royce to add to his royal fleet of automobiles from the prime minister, however, and a major thoroughfare in Addis Ababa was named “Churchill Road.” 8 In contrast, the early evening meeting between Roosevelt and Haile Selassie had been “exceptionally cordial and agreeable,” and official photographs show the emperor smiling broadly at the haggard American leader who was to live only two months longer. Roosevelt died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, only days before the organizational conference of the United Nations opened on April 25, 1945. Roosevelt invited Haile Selassie to visit the United States, an offer that the emperor would harbor for almost a decade. The Ethiopians presented Roosevelt with a four-inch solid gold globe, with the continents incised on it and a six-point supplicant memorandum (asking for financial assistance and for U.S. backing for Ethiopian territorial claims, which included the return of Eritrea to Ethiopia), which the United States, in due course, satisfied. 9 Perhaps what is more important, the emperor had met his first American president, and the efficacy of his preferred style of face-to-face diplomacy had been affirmed—at least in his own mind. Haile Selassie later honored Roosevelt by ordering in 1947 the Roosevelt Memorial Issue of Ethiopian postage stamps in commemoration of the second anniversary of the death of FDR. The late stampcollecting president might well have enjoyed the set that included pictures of Roosevelt and Haile Selassie’s meeting on the USS Quincy.10 Relations with the United States remained cordial during the Truman administration. In 1941 Ethiopia had become a member of the United Nations, and in July 1945, the U.S. Air Force transported the Ethiopian delegation, led by Prime Minister Makonnen Endalkachew, from Cairo to attend the San Francisco founding conference of the United Nations. The continuing amity of the two nations was demonstrated in 1949 when they jointly elevated their diplomatic missions to the ambassadorial level, a harbinger of increasing contacts between the two countries. A new Ethiopian national currency came into being in 1945, backed by America’s providing the silver needed to mint 50-cent coins, whose intrinsic value ensured popular acceptance of the new paper money. The most significant American private-sector undertaking in Ethiopia also began in 1945 when John Spencer, an American advisor to the emperor, contacted Transcontinental and Western Airlines (TWA) in San Francisco about the possibility of helping to establish and then manage Ethiopian Air Lines (EAL), the country’s first national airline. 38 The Lion of Judah in the New World Later in the year, TWA and Ethiopia signed a contract that was to endure until 1975. Beginning with DC-3s, EAL developed into one of the best equipped and most successful airlines in the developing world. Over the years EAL went through several generations of predominantly American-made aircraft. Even today, all of its wide-body fleet is Boeing. 11 Another American corporation, Sinclair Oil Company, began operations in Ethiopia in the 1940s. The emperor personally watched the beginning of the company’s explorations in the Ogaden in 1949, 12 but the results did not produce much of substance. Sinclair’s early efforts, however, paved the way for yet another U.S. firm, Tenneco, to discover reserves of natural gas and noncommercial crude oil in Ethiopia almost 30 years later. In 1951, the Imperial Highway Authority (IHA) was established with loans from the U.S.-sponsored International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The IHA bought millions of dollars of Americanmade road building supplies and equipment to restore old roads and build new ones. The United States provided personnel to direct and supervise the program that required challenging feats of engineering. Among the most significant accomplishments of the Truman administration was the start of the Point Four Program that provided U.S. technical assistance to developing countries. The Point Four Program was announced by Truman in his presidential inaugural address on January 20, 1949, in what many thought was the finest speech he had ever made, and took its name from the fourth foreign policy objective mentioned in the speech. Truman called for a bold new program for making the benefits of American science and industrial progress available to underdeveloped countries. The president noted that half the people in the world were living in conditions close to misery and that for the first time in history the knowledge and skill were available to relieve such suffering. Truman’s “Fair Deal” Plan for the World, as the Washington Post described it, emphasized the distribution of knowledge rather than money. 13 Haile Selassie played a role in furthering the Point Four idea when he invited the president of an American college, Dr. Henry G. Bennett of Oklahoma A&M, to come to Ethiopia to explore the possibility of establishing an agricultural college there. The two men held productive meetings, and upon his return to the U.S., Bennett talked with President Truman and Senator Robert S. Kerr (D-OK) about his visit to Ethiopia and his philosophy of educational aid to developing countries. Truman was so impressed by Bennett’s report that in November 1950, Liberation under the Shadow of Britain 39 he appointed him the first head of the Technical Cooperation Administration to implement the president’s fledgling Point Four technical assistance program. 14 Because of Bennett’s 1950 trip to Ethiopia and his friendship with Emperor Haile Selassie, Ethiopia was the first country to request technical assistance under the Point Four Program. On June 16, 1951, one of the first Point Four general agreements was signed by Ethiopia and the United States, initiating a number of economic development projects that would include the development of an Imperial College of Agriculture modeled after the American land-grant system; agricultural research, extension and technical schools; crop and livestock protection programs; teacher training; vocational trade schools; health programs; nurse education; malaria eradication; mapping and national archives; and a Blue Nile basin survey. Point Four also assisted the Imperial Ethiopian Government (IEG) in programs of regional development, national airlines training, and public administration. Three months after the Point Four Program agreement was signed, the two countries negotiated a Treaty of Amity and Economic Relations. This was the beginning of an American foreign aid program that was to become the largest in Africa, buoyed by Point Four’s successor organizations the International Cooperation Administration and the Agency for International Development. 15 As the Truman administration came to an end, Ethiopia was emerging as the major client state of the United States in Africa. Increased U.S. involvement in Ethiopia, both governmental and private, occurred as the Cold War was heating up and the world’s security and economic maps were being redrawn. In January 1952, U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia J. Rives Childs reported to the State Department that “the people of Ethiopia were aware that Ethiopia had alone among countries in her geographic and economic position met her obligations under the charter of the United Nations, and is alone among them in meeting those obligations to the full extent of military sacrifice and commitment.” 16 What would this awareness bode for the nascent U.S. programs getting under way throughout the country? What would the new relationship between Ethiopia and the United States bring for both countries and for the Horn of Africa?


Messenger: Eleazar Sent: 3/6/2013 11:49:55 PM
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CHAPTER 5 The Treasure of Kagnew

During World War II, the United States had its eyes on a special prize in the highlands of the Horn. A U.S. Army feasibility study identified the former site of an Italian naval radio station, Radio Marina, located outside the Eritrean town of Asmara, as an extraordinary site for a communications base. Situated near the equator at an altitude 7,600 feet above sea level, “far from the North and South magnetic poles, the Aurora Borealis, and magnetic storms, and in a zone where there was limited seasonal variation between sunrise and sunset,” Radio Marina offered exactly what the U.S. War Department was looking for as “a fixed radio station.”1 The station’s locale was in a relatively quiet electronic environment with suitable topographic features and climate characteristics that required fewer radio frequency changes. 2 All of these features contributed to the “anomalous propagation of radio signals” by which broadcasts from amplitude modulation, or AM stations, could be received from as far away as Finland, Australia, and Brazil. In May 1943, soldiers of the U.S. Army Signal Corps began refurbishing existing buildings, and, by December, communications and receiver sets were in place. A staff of four officers and 50 enlisted men operated Radio Marina, or Asmara Barracks, as it officially was called. 3 During the next two years, Asmara Barracks developed into a significant link in the U.S. military’s worldwide communications network. From Eritrea, radio signals were relayed to the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific theater, with specific circuits maintained to The Treasure of Kagnew 41 New Delhi, Tehran, and Washington, DC. The base also served as an intelligence-gathering outpost. In October 1943, coded Nazi radiograms about German defenses in the Westwal and the Siegried Line were sent from Berlin to Tokyo and intercepted by Asmara Barracks. These messages were passed on to General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters and used in preparing strategy for the conquest of Germany. 4 After the end of World War II, operations at the barracks were cut back. Soldiers stationed there complained about the post being “the most remote in the Army.” To get there, GIs had to travel to Dhahran in Saudi Arabia and from there catch a ride on a once-a-week C-47 flight to the base. When the Korean War began in June 1950, however, the base again became vital to American communications. Circuits were activated to Europe, the Middle East, and the Philippines, and increased U.S. military involvement worldwide necessitated the expansion of Radio Marina. If electric and magnetic disturbances upset communications in the higher latitudes of Europe, the base could serve the members of the newly created North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It soon became clear to U.S. policy makers that the maintenance of the communications station in Eritrea was of strategic importance. The Pentagon grew nervous about the imminent British evacuation from Eritrea and increasingly came to appreciate that only Ethiopian sovereignty there would guarantee U.S. control over what had become a strategically important signals facility and a convenient supply and oil depot in the nearby Eritrean Red Sea port of Massawa. 5 United States-Ethiopian military ties grew stronger at the outbreak of the Korean War. To show Ethiopia’s appreciation for the United States’ support on the Eritrean and Ogaden issues in 1950, Emperor Haile Selassie sent a contingent of 1,200 troops from the Imperial Bodyguard to join the United Nations peacekeeping mission. An American ship transported the troops to Korea early in 1951. Ethiopia was the one non-NATO nation in Africa to contribute a contingent to the UN forces in Korea. 6 The Ethiopian Expeditionary Force to Korea, or Kagnew Battalion, as the unit was known, proved in combat alongside American troops that they were very effective soldiers. The Kagnew Battalion fought in 253 battles in which not one of the Ethiopian troops was captured, and their heroism was chronicled in the book Pork Chop Hill.7 Before the most intense fighting ended in 1953, three Ethiopian battalions, totaling 5,000 men, had rotated to Korea, where they fought with distinction. The Amharic word Kagnew, meaning “to bring order out of chaos,” first gained significance in Ethiopian history during the Battle of Adwa 42 The Lion of Judah in the New World in 1896, when a riderless horse named Kagnew galloped towards the attacking Italians, heartening the Ethiopians into repulsing them. According to Ethiopian legend, it was Saint George, the dragon slayer and patron saint of arms, who rode unseen by mortals upon Kagnew in that charge. The name Kagnew, still associated with arms, would soon take on a new meaning for Americans and a notorious one for some Ethiopians. ETHIOPIAN-ERITREAN UNION Haile Selassie’s foreign policy in late 1940s was mainly concerned with the question of the future of Eritrea, the integration of which was considered a matter of major economic as well as strategic importance. Eritrea’s Red Sea ports of Massawa and Assab would be attractive links to the commerce of landlocked Ethiopia. Above all to Ethiopia, Eritrea represented the historic route of Italian invasion. When the British military mission withdrew from Eritrea in early 1951, Washington applied pressure on the emperor to seek hegemony over the former colony to assure that a friendly host would continue to welcome the American presence at Radio Marina. 8 Among Eritreans, various factions had disparate designs for the future of the territory. The largest political party in the country, the Unionist Party, and most Christians of the highlands wanted unity with Ethiopia. The political opposition and Muslims of the northwest wanted an independent Eritrea. 9 For its part, the government of Italy demanded restitution of Eritrea, the oldest Italian colony and home of 37,000 Italians (in contrast to Somalia, where there were only 5,000 Italians). The Italian argument was countered by fear of putting Ethiopia between two pincers of Italians in both Somaliland and Eritrea. In Britain, Labour’s Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin did not want to re establish “Italian rule with British bayonets.” Another possibility would have been a UN trusteeship under which Italy, Ethiopia, or some other nation might supervise over a period of years the transition of Eritrea from colonial status to self-government. The powers of an administering state would include full legislative, administrative, and judicial authority and, in certain cases, the right to treat the former colony as if it was part of the administering state. Finally, the future of Eritrea was passed to the United Nations. 10 Britain wanted to keep anticolonial Ethiopia out of the UN Trusteeship Council and thus did not opt for Ethiopian trusteeship of Eritrea. At the height of negotiations about the disputed future of Eritrea, The Treasure of Kagnew 43 the British denounced Haile Selassie as “the greatest intriguer of all time intriguers.” 11 Ethiopian participation in the Korean War, however, convinced U.S. officials that all Eritrea should be federated with Ethiopia.12 Such a federation would expedite American plans to further develop Radio Marina as a strategic listening station and secure other military installations of import to the defense of the Near East in an Eritrea united with a war-tested, anticommunist ally. The disposal of the territory was finally decided by the UN, and in September 1952, Eritrea officially became “an autonomous state federated with Ethiopia” under the Ethiopian crown. A decade later, Eritrea was absorbed into Ethiopia as just another province. An American, Don Paradis, legal advisor to the Ethiopian prime minister, drafted the proclamation reuniting Ethiopia with Eritrea. Many Eritreans, who under the British administration had learned respect for parliamentary democracy, pluralist elections, the rule of law, and the protection of human rights, were disappointed in their fate in being forced into an authoritarian monarchy. After the federal solution for Eritrea was completed, Ethiopia began to pressure the United States for a military alliance. For its part, Ethiopia played the we-are-a-good-ally-and-true card while asking for military aid. Ethiopians were aware that their nation had “alone among countries in her geographical and economic position met her obligations under the UN charter” and was “alone among them in meeting those obligations to the full extent of military sacrifice and commitment.”13 In the event of a world conflict, Ethiopia would be on the side of the United States, and, therefore, it was important for it “to be in a position to assume its external obligations in that respect and it was particularly important for internal security.” In insisting on a suitable quid pro quo for the Radio Marina base, Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abete-Wold Aklilou warned the Americans, “Many European bees will want an equal right to sip the Ethiopian honey.” To buy entitlement to the Ethiopian hive, suitable compensation for the leasing of Radio Marina would be the rights to procure arms and have the United States provide a formal military training mission. 14 Haile Selassie wanted a permanent U.S. military mission of about 50 personnel, not one that would come to Ethiopia for a brief period to show the Ethiopians simply “how to insert cartridges in rifles.” 15 The Radio Marina acreage near Asmara had become prime real estate and a high-value bargaining chip in U.S.-Ethiopian relations. Six years of frustration and rejection by the United States finally came to an end on May 22, 1953, when diplomats signed a Mutual Defense 44 The Lion of Judah in the New World Assistance Agreement (MDAA) and a Defense Installations Agreement (DIA). 16 Emperor Haile Selassie personally facilitated the signing of what U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles viewed as very favorable base rights agreements The two treaties were to serve as the foundation for U.S.-Ethiopian military relations for the next quarter of a century. The treaties had required nine months of sometimes acrimonious negotiations to reach a satisfactory agreement on the substantive contents. A tacit quid pro quo, arms-for-base-rights exchange had been enacted. In return for the Americans’ guaranteed access to Ethiopian military bases and the preservation of a special position at Radio Marina, known after the signing of the agreement as Kagnew Station, Ethiopia agreed to a longer-term lease of 25 years for Kagnew and to much lower rental than those being negotiated by the United States at that time in Libya and Saudi Arabia. Washington would grant Ethiopia up to $5 million of military assistance and provide military training for three Ethiopian Army divisions of 6,000 soldiers for Ethiopia’s internal security. Ethiopia also had requested that the United States agree to defend Kagnew from possible attack, but the Americans turned down the proposal. 17 Ethiopia profited enormously from the arms aid, the training mission that was called the Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG), and rentals and expenditures produced by the base agreement. On the other hand, some Ethiopians were never comfortable with the presence of a military base of a foreign power within the country’s borders. With its operations shrouded in secrecy, Kagnew actually had little to do with Ethiopia or Africa. The suspicions and xenophobic railings of some of the local populace were to becloud Ethiopians’ public perception of Kagnew Station throughout its existence. The United States may have been compelled to act by pressures from the developing Cold War. U.S. State Department spokespeople rationalized the treaties by pointing out that (1) Ethiopia was not a member of a bloc such as the then problematic Arab Bloc or Colonial Powers; (2) in Korea, Ethiopia had demonstrated that it was on “our side” and was a strong supporter of collective security; (3) “colored troops” (African Americans) were of great value in the propaganda war; and (4) Haile Selassie would gladly join any alliance of nations opposed to communism.18 In truth, the United States simply wanted to pay rent for Radio Marina and limit its military involvement in Ethiopia. To give a royal imprimatur to the military agreements, the emperor attended the name-changing ceremony at the new Kagnew Station. Dressed in a military uniform with cape and pith helmet, Haile Selassie reviewed a U.S. honor guard. The emperor told a U.S. colonel The Treasure of Kagnew 45 accompanying him on the tour that the mess hall “was much too fine for any common soldier and should be reserved for officers.” 19 The colonel’s reply is not recorded. The ratification of the treaties gave new impetus to Haile Selassie’s ambition to visit the United States. The emperor had a “standing enchantment with the United States,” and he was determined to visit North America. 20 He also harbored the belief that diplomacy was primarily to be conducted between heads of state. The little king was a strong believer in personal diplomacy—the idea of having direct and frank discussions with those he was seeking to persuade. That’s why he often engaged world leaders in a one-on-one conversation, to diminish any fear of his country’s intentions and to seek common ground for reducing tensions and promoting peace. The emperor wanted to establish a personal relationship and to break down any barriers of mistrust that divided their countries. When Dwight Eisenhower, whom Haile Selassie admired for his role as commander of allied forces, became president in 1953, the emperor pressed for a state visit. 21 In doing this, the emperor signaled that he was sure of the stability of his nation and the safety of his throne—sureties that he had not enjoyed only a short time before. The times were propitious for such a journey by the emperor. Haile Selassie had signed the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement of 1954 that completed the restoration of Ethiopia’s internationally recognized pre-1935 frontiers, a goal the emperor had pursued since the end of World War II. His nation had gained access to the sea when Eritrea, became “an autonomous state federated with Ethiopia” under the Ethiopian crown. In short, the emperor had brought his country to the position of military and political leadership in a continent which, with the exceptions of Egypt, Liberia, and South Africa, was still under colonial rule. 22 Haile Selassie had a willing helper in his effort to get an invitation for a state visit to Washington. The new American ambassadordesignate to Ethiopia, the Reverend Joseph Simonson, an ambitious Lutheran minister, cabled U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles for authorization to extend an invitation to the emperor, an action that would not only be of general benefit to Ethiopian-American relations but would start off the new ambassador’s mission under exceptionally favorable circumstances. 23 According to John Spencer, Dulles sought to prevent the emperor’s visit. 24 But using all the political and diplomatic capital at his disposal, Haile Selassie insisted, and the new U.S. ambassador’s intervention prevailed. In October 1953, Secretary Dulles wrote a memo to Eisenhower urging that the emperor be invited for a state visit in 1954. “The United 46 The Lion of Judah in the New World States has no more genuine friend than Haile Selassie,” Dulles wrote. 25 “He has sent troops to Korea and has been most cooperative in our economic and military aid programs.” Dulles also cited the emperor’s role in accelerating the signing of the military agreements. “We are often accused of placating our potential opponents. Here is an opportunity to reward a constant friend.” A visit from Haile Selassie “would be popular in America and would give the Administration a readymade and non-controversial opportunity to make a genuine gesture with respect to the Negro population.” This was especially pertinent since no African head of state had been received in Washington since President Edwin Barclay of Liberia had visited Roosevelt in 1943. Five days after receiving the Dulles memo, Eisenhower approved Haile Selassie’s visit in April or May 1954. 26 A short time later, the emperor wrote to the president, accepting the invitation and expressing regret that Empress Menen’s ill health would preclude her accompanying him. 27 On May 18, 1954, the emperor and his entourage received a traditional send-off from the Addis Ababa airport, complete with an honor guard of the Imperial Army, the royal family, ministers, and diplomatic corps present. They flew in a U.S. Army DC-6 to Khartoum and Tripoli, where they landed at Wheelus Air Force Base, a U.S. installation, and finally, to Orley Field in Paris. On the flight to Paris, “while Haile Selassie was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat, the outer port-side engine suddenly failed. The Emperor’s staff froze in quiet terror, but Haile Selassie remained up front, amused by their consternation.” 28 In France the royal party continued on to Le Havre, where they boarded the SS United States for a transatlantic voyage to New York. The SS United States, the product of the finest American engineering, was bigger than a battleship at 59,000 tons, 17 stories high, and 990 feet long. It was the fastest ocean liner of its day and on its maiden voyage in 1952 shaved 10 hours off of the record of the Queen Mary . The Big U, as it was called, had an average speed of 35 knots or 40 miles per hour. When it first sped by the Queen Mary, the Captain cabled his British counterpart: “Sorry Old Girl.” Replied theQueen Mary ’s captain, “Your girls are faster than our girls.” 29 The Ethiopian royals enjoyed the speedy three-and-a half-day crossing that introduced them to air-conditioned state rooms and to steaks cooked in five minutes in a microwave oven. 30 Each day the emperor enjoyed an hour’s massage from the ship’s masseur, who was so proficient in his work that he was offered a position in Ethiopia as Haile Selasie’s personal masseur. A fan of the afternoon movies, the monarch The Treasure of Kagnew 47 enjoyed several, including the film tragedyJulius Caesar, starring Marlon Brando. 31 Haile Selassie might have enjoyed seeing the entire assassination scene, because after he attended the first production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in Addis Ababa in 1952, censors had required that the stabbing of Caesar take place behind a thin curtain with lights dimmed. 32 Performances of Androcles and the Lion by George Bernard Shaw also fell under close scrutiny by Ethiopian censors. The Lion of Judah was sensitive to what lions said. An African American hairstylist gave Princess Seble a “swirl curl” of her very “fine” hair that drew acclaim shipboard. The last day at sea was marred by the ship’s stewards declaring that the $1,100 in gratuities distributed by Haile Selassie was “inadequate,” although the rest of the party had taken care of their own tips. 33 Nevertheless, the emperor sailed into American waters fully energized and ready to realize his long held ambition of going to the United States and practicing his special band of personal diplomacy. Unknown, however, was how the leader of a poor, sub-Saharan African nation would be received in the most powerful nation in the world—where racial segregation still existed in many guises throughout the country.


Messenger: Eleazar Sent: 3/6/2013 11:51:41 PM
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CHAPTER 6 A Very Royal First State Visit, 1954

President Eisenhower’s plane, the Columbine II, a Lockheed C-69 Constellation, the heaviest and fastest transport plane of its time, made a perfect landing at 4:00p.m. at Washington’s National Airport. As the pilot, Lt. Col. William Draper, taxied to the VIP terminal, an honor guard of companies from all four of the U.S. military branches was brought to attention. After the Super Constellation came to a halt, Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia stepped briskly from the plane. The “Elect of God, King of Kings, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Branch of the Tree of Solomon, and Implement of the Trinity” had arrived in Washington on his first state visit to the United States on May 26, 1954. The 61- year-old emperor, who stood five-feet four-inches tall, was dressed in a field marshal’s olive dress uniform with brilliant scarlet touches adorned with nine rows of campaign ribbons (including the U.S. Legion of Merit). He carried a very long leather swagger stick. His Imperial Majesty (or “HIM,” as protocol required the emperor to be called) was greeted by Vice President Richard Nixon and Admiral Arthur W. Radford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. A 21-gun salute thundered throughout the airport and echoed among the flats along the Potomac River. The emperor snapped to a smart salute and held it for nearly five minutes while a military band played theStar Spangled Banner and the Ethiopian national anthem, Mazmur. Then, Haile Selassie, joined by Nixon, Radford, and a cadre of high-ranking officers, stepped off in a quick march to review the honor guard. 1A Very Royal First State Visit, 1954 49 The military honors concluded, the emperor, whose “bushy hair was flecked with grey,” turned to his interpreter, Endalkachew Mekonnen, the Oxford-educated chief of protocol of the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to ask, “Where is President Eisenhower?” Endalkachew replied that, according to the U.S. State Department, it was customary for the president to wait at the White House for a formal state arrival ceremony while the vice president or secretary of state welcomed visiting heads of state at the airport. The emperor obviously preferred Ethiopian protocol where he personally greeted visiting rulers upon their arrival at the Addis Ababa airport. The emperor’s disappointment in not being met by the president was palpable to his entourage but lost to the admiring throng at the airport. To further offend the emperor, Nixon did not board the big, open limousine with Haile Selassie for the ride from National Airport to the White House but rode in a different vehicle in the motorcade. 2 This was not the welcome that the emperor had expected. After all, HIM had been greeted in a regal way upon his arrival the day before in New York City. Even though protocol required the emperor’s entry into New York be made unostentatiously, Haile Selassie received a noisy harbor welcome as his sleek liner the SSUnited States moved up the bay with an escort of police launches. 3 The first greeting came serendipitously from a CBS reporter. Thousands of television watchers ofThe Morning Show at 7:45 a.m. had a live interview with Haile Selassie as he stood at the rail, viewing for the first time the famous Lower New York skyline from the upper harbor. There were no television cameras aboard the vessel, but CBS hired a tugboat to steam parallel to the liner as she proceeded toward the pier. The tugboat carried a TV camera with a long-range lens, and a CBS reporter interviewed the emperor beside the rail with a portable mike and an amplifier that gave a two-way audio feed to the picture on the television screen. At one point, Walter Cronkite, speaking from the CBS studio, asked Haile Selassie if he would wave to the television audience. The emperor good-naturedly complied and went to deck on the starboard side just as the liner entered the upper harbor. The tugboat swung into position in perfect timing and suddenly Haile Selassie was on the air. HIM heard the cue on the amplifier and gave a vigorous wave and smile to the camera on the tugboat. A short time later, Haile Selassie formally received a welcoming delegation of State Department officials, the mayor’s reception committee, and the press in his suite. He obligingly went to the ship’s sport deck to pose for photographers and in a lounge below, HIM received 50 The Lion of Judah in the New World reporters with friendly dignity, exchanging casual remarks with them in English. The U.S. Coast Guard had taken reporters into the harbor on a cutter so they could sail into New York aboard the liner with Haile Selassie. In his first interview in America, the emperor emphasized two themes that would characterize his visit: international collective security and U.S. investment in Ethiopia. Haile Selassie noted that “Ethiopia has done everything within her means to oppose aggression everywhere. She was the only state in the Near East and in the Middle East to send troops to resist aggression in Korea” 4 The emperor asserted that a strong Ethiopia stands in the “delicately poised” Middle East for collective security and the “high ideas which the United States as well exemplifies . . . Ethiopia remains more profoundly convinced than ever that her appeal was right and that God is now vouchsafing unto her recompense for all her sufferings.” The emperor said he was not personally seeking financial aid from the United States, “however, my countrymen would be greatly pleased to see more American business enterprises and capital in Ethiopia.” When asked the purpose of his visit, the emperor explained, “President Eisenhower, for whom I have held the greatest admiration for many years, has extended an invitation to me to visit this great country. My visit is, consequently, in response to this invitation and to my own desire personally to become acquainted with the great and friendly American people.” 5 The emperor was most polite to members of the press and went out of his way to accommodate African American reporters. Although personal interviews were rare, Haile Selassie granted one to the youngAfro-American reporter, James Hicks. After the press had left, the royal party disembarked and was escorted through an honor guard of firemen carrying 17 American flags, who lined the gangplank. The emperor was subjected again to a phalanx of paparazzi and then led to a limousine with an escort of motorcycle police and a security guard for a fast ride to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where Ambassador Simonson was host at a luncheon. The national flag of Ethiopia—three broad horizontal stripes of, from top to bottom, green, yellow, and red—was flying in honor of HIM. This was the first time the Ethiopian flag was ever flown at the hotel, which had ordered it two months earlier upon learning that the emperor would be a guest. The emperor, Prince Sahle, and Princess Seble were housed in the Presidential Suite, a nine-room suite that on other occasions was the pied-à-terre of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, on the 28th floor of A Very Royal First State Visit, 1954 51 the Towers at the Waldorf. Other members of the official party refused to stay in any rooms at the Waldorf higher than that floor—resulting in the hotel’s staff having to rearrange accommodations previously made for most of them. 6 The nonroyalty ended up scattered over five lower floors. According to the New Yorker, the royal party was by no means outsize, by either royal or Waldorf standards, but it was wellluggaged, with 110 pieces. As soon as the royal party was settled at the hotel, Princess Seble, who was a striking figure wearing a gray tailored suit, a white cloche hat with an egret wing, and jade earrings, went immediately to Saks Fifth Avenue, where in less than an hour and a half, she purchased “two evening dresses, a silk suit, a pair of shoes, a hat, a pair of gloves, and a handbag.” 7 Later in the afternoon, the emperor, having changed from his uniform to a gray business suit, white shirt and figured necktie, made a trip around Manhattan on a special sightseeing tugboat, Dalzellaird, as the guest of Leland Stanford, executive vice-president of the Sinclair Oil Company. 8 Upon his disembarkation at Pier 1, HIM received the gift of a Chrysler limousine from Sinclair Oil. Haile Selassie’s stay challenged a Waldorf tradition. Whenever a distinguished foreign visitor arrived, it was the hotel’s practice to have the guest served by a waiter who spoke the visitor’s native tongue. None of the waiters at the Waldorf spoke Amharic. Not that it mattered to the emperor, whose French and creditable English would suffice; it was just that the Waldorf hated to fail at anything. In the end, the emperor was assigned a waiter who spoke French. 9 Unfortunately, another resident of the Waldorf Towers, Cole Porter, the witty songwriter and lyricist, who lived in a nine-room memorabilia-filled apartment, was away in California at the time of the Emperor’s stay. Had the two met by chance, Haile Selassie might have thanked Porter for dropping the line “You’re Mussolini” from the song lyrics of “You’re the Top,” when his musical Anything Goes returned to New York after a 1935 London production. The line about the fascist dictator was not in Porter’s original 1934 New York production but had been written by P. G. Wodehouse and inserted in the song’s refrain in London. “Haile Selassie” did not rhyme with any of Porter’s superlatives in the song. On the day after the royals’ arrival, Mayor Wagner paid a courtesy call at the hotel. The emperor greeted the mayor in a business suit but graciously, if rather wearily, changed to his field marshal’s uniform upon the insistence of the newspaper photographers present. 10 At 2:30p.m. , Haile Selassie departed for Washington, DC, in President 52 The Lion of Judah in the New World Eisenhower’s personal plane, the Columbine . 11 The president had named his plane after the state flower of Colorado, his wife Mamie’s adopted home state. Eisenhower’s Columbine II was the first to use the call signAir Force One that denoted the president was aboard. With such royal treatment already showered upon HIM in New York City, was there any doubt that President Eisenhower should have been at the airport to personally receive the emperor? According to Spencer, Haile Selassie had a long memory, and incidents that seemed of relatively minor importance stuck in his mind. The emperor would remember what he considered a personal slight, but such thoughts faded as the head of state’s seven-limousine motorcade made its way across the Potomac to the cheers of thousands of capital residents augmented by District of Columbia and federal government employees, who were dismissed early for the occasion. Not since the summer of 1939 when Britain’s king and queen came to the United States had the District of Columbia greeted an emperor. The weather was magnificent, as only a spring day in Washington can be, and police estimated a crowd of more than 30,000 who lined Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues. Lampposts sprouted Ethiopia’s tri-color flag, the District’s flag, and the stars and stripes. In addition, small hand flags had been distributed. Eight hundred police and 2,300 members of the armed forces patrolled the parade route. After a quick stop at the District of Columbia Building, where he was presented with the key to city before a crowd of 5,000, the Emperor proceeded in an open black Cadillac to the East Executive Drive of the White House. There, President and Mrs. Eisenhower, waiting on the White House steps when the motorcade arrived, gave the emperor and his family members a warm welcome. As Haile Selassie stepped from his limousine, Eisenhower told him, “For Mrs. Eisenhower and me, it is a rare privilege to have you as our guest in this house.” 12 When the emperor was introduced to Mrs. Eisenhower, he clicked his heels and bowed in a courtly fashion as he took her extended hand. Princess Seble carried a huge bouquet of red roses that had been given to her at the District Building ceremony lending a colorful touch to the White House greetings. “The American people,” the chief executive said, “are honored to have you on their shores so they may salute one who has established a reputation as a defender of freedom and a supporter of progress.” Haile Selassie responded in heavily accented English: “This is a moment to which I have looked forward with the keenest anticipation. For years it has been my fondest hope to be able in person to convey A Very Royal First State Visit, 1954 53 to the President and the people of the United States the expression of the profound admiration which I and my people have for your great Nation.”13 Ike and Mamie walked out on the North Portico and saw Haile Selassie into his limousine as he was leaving the White House. A huge box wrapped in silver foil and tied with a large white bow was placed in one of the cars, a gift from the President and Mrs. Eisenhower to Haile Selassie and Empress Menen. In the box was the Gazelle Bowl of splendid Steuben glass. Eisenhower established a tradition by that act in making Steuben glass the official White House gift presented to visiting diplomats, royalty, and American heroes. Haile Selassie gave Eisenhower a personally inscribed photograph in a silver frame, an engraved silver and gold cigarette chest, an attractive wool rug which was woven in the palace, and a 27-inch by 33-inch pictorial map of Ethiopia. To Mamie, the emperor’s gifts included a silk rug, a gold evening bag, and ornately embroidered material. Empress Menen, in absentia, gave Mamie a gold mesh bracelet that had been made in the palace and an autographed photo of the empress in a silver frame. At a white-tie White House dinner, President Eisenhower spoke of Haile Selassie as a man “who has established a reputation as a defender of freedom and a supporter of progress.” The emperor thanked the president and the American people for “your friendship and assistance which encouraged and aided us in resuming our march on the road of progress from which we had been detained by the imperatives of war. That assistance is today, in yet more varied forms, strongly impelling us forward on the path of progressive development.” 14 The state dinner was relatively small by White House standards, with only 26 government officials and their wives plus the royal party. In attendance were Chief Justice Earl Warren, Speaker of the House Joseph W. Martin, Ralph Bunche of the United Nations, Ambassador to the UN Henry Cabot Lodge, cabinet secretaries, and members of congress. Although Mrs. Eisenhower staged the event according to strict military protocol, there was something of a family aspect about the party, formal and official though it was. The décor of the White House was polished and pruned for the banquet. The president and the emperor sat in throne-like chairs at the head of a U-shaped table. Mrs. Eisenhower chose a silver-gilt service for the occasion, and the dining room was festooned with yellow roses, irises, and snapdragons. The marine band played throughout the dinner, and later, entertainment was provided by Metropolitan Opera coloratura soprano Patrice 54 The Lion of Judah in the New World Munsel.15 After dinner, Haile Selassie remained at the White House as an overnight guest. On May 27, the Washington Post in an editorial, “Lion of Judah,” noted that “in the parade of foreign leaders visiting this capital it is seldom that Washington has the chance to play host to a man of the unique distinction of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.” 16 That morning, the uniquely distinctive guest was transferred from the White House across Pennsylvania Avenue to Blair House, the official state guest house of the president. The royals were then driven to Mount Vernon where the emperor inscribed the visitor’s book in Amharic: “In memory of the visit to the memorial of the famous George Washington. Haile Selassie I, 1954.” HIM laid a wreath on Washington’s tomb and shortly afterwards laid another wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Haile Selassie’s appearance at the cemetery created a stir among the crowd of tourists as 21-gun salutes boomed out upon HIM’s arrival and departure. Honor guards from the army and marines added flair to the ceremony. Back in Washington, the emperor had a lunch meeting at the Statler Hotel with the capital press and photographers corps. In the afternoon, the Ethiopian Ambassador Yilma Deressa gave a reception and official dinner for Haile Selassie at the Mayflower Hotel, attended by some 2,500 guests. In the main ballroom, a 50-foot banquet table laden with food was banked with five-foot high flower decorations. A fountain spouted scotch and soda. The emperor chatted with Secretary Dulles and Foreign Operations Administrator Harold Stassen, but he did not partake of the feast. Four official dinners and two luncheons in two-and-a-half days were too much, even for a Lion. 17 The official day concluded with a dinner in honor of HIM given by Secretary of State and Mrs. Dulles at Anderson House, the Beaux Arts mansion at DuPont Circle where other visiting royalty had been feted in the past. 18 The last full day of the royal party in Washington began with a morning visit to the National Cathedral, where special worship services were held in honor of Haile Selassie. Prior to giving a short address at the cathedral, the emperor made an unscheduled presentation, thrusting into the hands of the Right Reverend Angus Dunn, Bishop of Washington, a richly decorated Bible and a solid gold Coptic cross. This was the second cross HIM had given the cathedral. In 1931 the emperor had made a gift of a silver and gold cross as a symbol of Ethiopian Christianity, given in appreciation for prayers read on the occasion of his coronation in 1930. The first gift cross was carried in the A Very Royal First State Visit, 1954 55 procession on the occasion of Haile Selassie’s visit to the cathedral. As titular head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, HIM sat in the chancel. After the religious service, the emperor planted a peace rose in the bishop’s rose garden. The royal party paid a brief visit to the supreme court building, where Chief Justice Warren and Associate Justices Stanley Reed, Felix Frankfurter, Tom Clark, and Robert Jackson donned their black robes to welcome them in the chief’s chambers. 19 Then the royals went to the neighboring Library of Congress, where there was a special exhibit of books, documents, and photographs highlighting Ethiopian culture, history, and recent advances in education and health facilities. The exhibit was the first of its kind in the United States. At the Library, the ruler received prolonged applause, a spontaneous gesture of affection from the visitors present. When a photographer’s flash bulb exploded, Haile Selassie jumped about three feet, according to a bystander. Secret Service agents promptly prohibited any more flash photography. Most of the Emperor’s 1954 visit was captured in black and white, most often by still photographers. The technology was to change, and, in the decade that followed, state visitors were, more often than not, caught in living color on tape or film. At 12:30 p.m. in the Capitol, Haile Selassie addressed a joint session of Congress. It was the beginning of a holiday weekend, so only about half of the congressional membership was present. Sitting immediately behind HIM at the rostrum were Vice President Nixon and Speaker Martin, who introduced the emperor. The joint chiefs of staff, headed by Chairman Admiral Radford, four members of the cabinet, the chief justice and three associate justices of the supreme court, and a full representation of the diplomatic corps were on the House floor. A whole row of House seats was empty, and page boys and other legislative employees were sent in to occupy them. The galleries were crowded, however, as HIM took his position on a red-carpeted platform behind the podium in the House of Representatives. Many who could not find gallery seats were forced to stand in the aisles. Haile Selassie was received warmly and was given a standing ovation at the beginning and at the end of his address. Dressed in a dark civilian suit, Haile Selassie read the first 200 words of his half-hour address in labored English and then switched to Amharic. His listeners were given copies of the text in English. 20 He thanked Congress for lend-lease assistance during the war and for mutual security aid and technical help since then. HIM recalled that Ethiopians who fell alongside Americans and other UN troops in Korea had fought and died “in defense of that principle” of 56 The Lion of Judah in the New World collective security. He declared that collective security was a universal principle “or it is no principle at all.” No state large or small can refuse the call of another for aid against aggression . . . I call upon the world for determination fearlessly to apply and to accept, as you and as we have accepted them, the sacrifices of collective security. That is why we, like you, have sent troops halfway around the world to Korea. 21 Speeches by heads of state were still newsworthy in the 1950s, and the full text of Haile Selasie’s address was published the next day in theNew York Times.22 After the congressional address, the emperor went to a lunch at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, hosted by the bank’s president, Eugene R. Black. Later, at a special afternoon convocation, Haile Selassie received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Howard University. Before an audience estimated at 10,000, university president Mordecai Johnson conferred the degree on Haile Selassie. In accepting the honor, HIM made his first public statement about African Americans. Said the emperor: It is certain that the United States would not have reached its present world stature were it not, in part, for the enormous labors of Africans whose great descendants are here represented on this occasion. Events in recent days, here in the United States, have brilliantly confirmed before the world the contribution you have made to the principle that all men are brothers and equal in the sight of God. 23 It was appropriate that Howard should be the first American university to bestow an honorary degree on the emperor. Howard and Ethiopia enjoyed a special relationship dating back to 1934, when several of the university’s distinguished academics, including Dr. Ralph Bunche, established the Ethiopian Research Council that has disseminated information about contemporary Ethiopian and African affairs ever since. In the evening, the emperor was host of a state dinner for President and Mrs. Eisenhower at the Ethiopian Embassy on Kalorama Road. There, HIM bestowed the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Star of Ethiopia on President Eisenhower and five other top officials who were associated with Ethiopia: Admiral Radford; Harold Stassen; Mordecai A Very Royal First State Visit, 1954 57 Johnson; Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs Henry Byroade; and Ambassador Simonson. On September 10, 1948, when Eisenhower was president of Columbia University, Haile Selassie had conferred another singular honor, the Order of Solomon, on him “in recognition of his worthy leadership in World War II.” Ethiopian Ambassador Ras Imru Haile Selassie had visited Eisenhower’s New York office to present him, on behalf of the emperor, with a certificate and a handsome gold star medal. On Friday morning, Haile Selassie, accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs Aklilu, and a secretary interpreter, met Eisenhower at the White House. From the Department of State, Stassen and Simmons, chief of protocol, sat in on the meeting. 24 The leaders had already exchanged profuse greetings, so the emperor quickly moved to the business at hand. He made it clear that Ethiopia would welcome the expansion of private investment in the country, and there were excellent opportunities for Americans whose money would be welcomed in the country. The emperor mentioned that new ports in Eritrea needed development and “some ships to stand guard.” He also hoped that Ethiopian Airlines would be expanded with U.S. aid. The president said friendly consideration would be given to all of these matters. Eisenhower said he was complimented by Haile Selassie’s visit to the United States and that he looked forward to a future relationship of friendship. The president stressed that “the United States did not want to dominate any country but to work with them as independent sovereign nations on a friendly basis.” The United States was willing to continue work in programs of social and economic progress in Ethiopia. 25 Furthermore, Eisenhower stated that the United States believed in the future importance of Ethiopia— particularly in Africa—as an area of stability. The U.S. government “may not be able to do all that it would like because what the United States does has to be considered in terms of our many other global commitments.” At the conclusion of the meeting, HIM left a memo with the president that contained proposals for (1) loans for improvements of ports, highways, and aviation for Ethiopia’s expanding economy; (2) encouragement of American private investment in Ethiopia; (3) assistance in education; and (4) military aid in fulfillment of the U.S.Ethiopian agreement of May 1953. 26 The meeting apparently ended amiably, but soon its ramifications affected both sides. According to a nonplussed John Spencer, the emperor had “suddenly decided to seek, without previous preparation or notice, new measures of military and technical aid.” 27 Spencer thought 58 The Lion of Judah in the New World this move “constituted an abuse of hospitality on a visit designed as a goodwill mission.” This was an instance, according to Spencer, of HIM’s “superficial approach to foreign affairs without deep appreciation of the substantive and technical issues, or of the obstacles involved.” The end result was not only a failure of his impulsive initiative, but offense on the part of state department officials. Assistant Secretary Byroade tried to dispose of the military requests by informing the emperor that Ethiopia was of no strategic interest to the United States, thereby contradicting his assertions of the previous year that there were few nations in the world with whom the United States “had such close and friendly ties as with Ethiopia,” a nation “essential to the defense of the Free World.” Byroade’s warning was largely ignored by Haile Selassie, who apparently held out hope that he would receive a favorable response from his hosts until the last day of his visit. 28 He would send Foreign Minister Aklilu and his advisor Spencer back to Washington to attempt to work out details with the State Department while HIM continued his state visit. What Haile Selassie had demonstrated was that he was indeed the supreme ruler and did not have to clear his actions or requests with anyone else. This was in stark contrast to the cautious approaches his American presidential hosts had to pursue in their face-to-face diplomacy. Like the emperor, Eisenhower had great faith in the power of personal diplomacy. Eisenhower liked face-to-face meetings, where differences could be discussed frankly and openly, as had been the way he had dealt with Churchill and Montgomery during World War II. What Haile Selassie did not know was that Eisenhower’s presidential meetings with foreign leaders had not ordinarily been for the transaction of business—that was left to the secretary of state and the professionals. Such meetings were rather for the purpose of generating goodwill—what came to be called high-level massage. Perhaps the emperor was aware that Eisenhower believed that foreign aid was the best possible way for the United States to spend its money abroad, far more important than military aid. Ike had been an early and strong advocate of the Marshall Plan, and he wanted to extend similar aid to third world countries as well. Eisenhower had a caveat about foreign aid, however. He would use it to help the cause of democracy in the third world at the expense of defense expenditures, but not at the expense of a balanced budget. Following the White House meeting, the emperor and his party boarded a train bound for Princeton, New Jersey, and were seen off at Union Station by President Eisenhower. Unbeknownst to Haile A Very Royal First State Visit, 1954 59 Selassie at the time, he had met three future presidents during the festivities in Washington: Senators John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and Vice President Richard Nixon. The royal party paid a two-and-a-half hour visit to Princeton University. At Princeton Junction, university officials met the Emperor’s train and accompanied him on the short automobile ride to the campus. “The slight, bearded monarch,” as The Daily Princetonian described him, visited the grounds of the Institute for Advanced Study and the modest home of Albert Einstein, then a professor at Princeton, before inspecting the campus. He toured the Graduate School, Nassau Hall, and the Firestone Library, where he viewed Ethiopian manuscripts from the Garrett Collection of Near East and Oriental literature and signed the Library’s guest book. The signature immediately above the Emperor’s was that of the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Phalevi. Approximately 200 faculty members and wives shook hands with HIM at a reception in the Library’s Faculty Lounge. A surprise guest at the reception was U.S. Senator H. Alexander Smith (R-NJ and Princeton ’01). 29 By that time, a group of 400 students had assembled and waited for HIM as he crossed from the gray stone library to the University Chapel. The Tigers gave the Lion of Judah a rousing cheer that elicited a smile from the emperor. Escorted by John K. Simmons (’13 Princeton), state department chief of protocol, Haile Selassie saw the Rittenhouse Orrery, one of the university’s oldest instruments for the teaching of science, in Peyton Hall. Devised to represent the motions of the planets about the sun, orreries were regarded as essential teaching equipment of 18th-century lecturers on natural philosophy. The emperor, “Instrument and Power of the Trinity,” had a strong fascination for science and asked his faculty tour guide many questions in French. When HIM and his party left Princeton, assembled students and townspeople accorded him a round of applause. The royal party, accompanied by a state police escort, drove in automobiles to New York City and their abode at the Waldorf Astoria. 30 Early Sunday morning, Haile Selassie, in a dark blue business suit and a stylish felt, attended a solemn doxology service at the Hellenic Cathedral of the Trinity, the Greek Orthodox Church, on East 74th Street. There, HIM received a blessing from Archbishop Michael of the Greek Orthodox Church of North and South America, who called him “chief of a renowned and venerable people.” The emperor presented the Archbishop with a hand-hammered gold processional cross of Ethiopian design for the cathedral. During the service, which was attended by 400 persons, Haile Selassie stood alone in front of the altar. Outside 60 The Lion of Judah in the New World the cathedral, a Boy Scout honor guard presented HIM with a set of bookends from the Manhattan Council of the Boy Scouts of America. After the service, the royal party traveled 90 miles north of the city to Hyde Park, the home of Franklin Roosevelt on the Hudson River, where they were the guests of Eleanor Roosevelt, the president’s widow. Mrs. Roosevelt and her son, FDR Jr., greeted him and conversed in French. In solemn silence, the emperor placed a wreath on FDR’s grave. After a luncheon in honor of HIM, the former first lady took the royal party on a tour of the mansion and the grounds. 31 Later in the afternoon, Haile Selassie, Defender of the Faith, went to his second church service of the day, receiving a tumultuous welcome on the way. The emperor attended a special service in his honor at the Abyssinian Baptist Church on West 138th Street, which was described as “the biggest affair for a foreign dignitary ever given in Harlem.” A gleeful crowd of 25,000 people jammed the streets of the church block, and thousands more gathered along the route of the ruler’s cavalcade, cheering and shouting as his car passed by. It was the most enthusiastic and spontaneous welcome he received in America. The motorcade’s route down 7th Avenue was decked with banners and photos of Haile Selassie, while from 155th Street to 138 th Street a cheering throng clapped, jumped, and waved small green, yellow, and red Ethiopian flags. The mass of spectators pressed against police lines was rewarded by the little monarch poking his bearded head out of the car and waving his thanks. The Abyssinian Baptist Church had been founded in 1808 by Ethiopian traders who resented being segregated in other churches and in the 1950s was one of the largest Protestant churches in the United States. After waving to the crowd, the emperor and his party were greeted at the church by the Reverend Dr. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the pastor of the church and also a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, “in the name of the 700,000 Afro-Americans of New York City”—“men and women of every faith, belief and disbelief.” Powell extolled HIM as “the symbol around which we place all our hopes, dreams, and prayers that one day the entire continent of Africa shall be as free as the country of Ethiopia.” During the 30-minute service, the emperor was so moved by a 200-voice choir fervently singing “And He shall reign forever and ever” from the Hallelujah chorus of Handel’s Messiah that he made a short, impromptu speech. Standing at the altar between vases of flowers, the titular head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church told a cheering congregation of 3,000 Baptists, through an interpreter, that he and his country believed in collective security to halt aggression “wherever it arises and whenever necessary.” Haile Selassie then A Very Royal First State Visit, 1954 61 presented the church with an Ethiopian-design gold processional cross inscribed on the back in commemoration of HIM’s visit. This cross subsequently became the official symbol of the church and still stands on the pulpit. The emperor also gave Powell a large gold medallion which he proudly wore on a chain around his neck for the rest of his life. Throughout the service, worshippers shouted “Amen!” and applauded enthusiastically. This mood continued until the emperor departed as the organ played Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance.” Outside, the unrestrained ovation continued. For a moment the monarch stood looking up at tenement window filled with people waving. The cheering got louder as he got into his car and drove east along 138th Street. Along his route, other thousands caught the spirit and yelled to HIM. News of the emperor’s presence had spread throughout Harlem, and crowds gathered along 7th Avenue as far south as 118th Street as the cars with American and Ethiopian flags, proceeded by a motorcycle escort, journeyed back to the Waldorf. At the hotel, the monarch held an informal reception for 10 Ethiopian students who were studying in the United States. That evening the royals visited a Broadway movie house to see the then new and novel “Cinerama,” a widescreen process that simultaneously projected images from three synchronized 35-mm projectors onto a huge, deeply curved screen. Then they went to Radio City Music Hall to watch the Rockettes and the stage show. 32 The next morning, the small monarch took a few turns on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, the tallest building in the world at the time, but the visibility was not good. The emperor gave his memorable high blessing to a pregnant Manhattanite also visiting the tower before making his descent. 33 After a private luncheon, the royal party was taken out to the ballpark and to the game—actually, two games, a doubleheader—between the New York Yankees and the Washington Senators. On the way, to the chagrin of HIM’s State Department escorts, his limousine was stuck in a traffic jam for several minutes on the Triborough Bridge waiting for a smaller motorcade bringing President Eisenhower from LaGuardia Airport to a Columbia University–related event in the City. The emperor was unaccustomed to such delays. In Ethiopia, when Haile Selassie drove down the streets in his Rolls Royce, people stopped their cars, get out, and prostrated themselves in honor of their monarch. After the brief interlude on the bridge and a proper introduction to heavy holiday traffic, the royal procession made its way to the Bronx and Yankee Stadium, where 30,000 fans were on hand for the game. 62 The Lion of Judah in the New World The emperor, seeing his first baseball game, was greeted by cheers and applause when he took his seat in a box near the Yankee dugout. He enjoyed himself, posing repeatedly for photographs with Yankee manager Casey Stengel, who presented HIM with an autographed baseball, and chatting with Yankee infielder Bobby Brown, who had served as a physician in the Korean War. The bearded ruler received his largest ovation when he playfully took a batboy’s glove and, standing in his box, waved his gloved hand to the cheering crowd. Haile Selassie showed himself to be a master diplomat by maintaining strict neutrality. HIM explained that both Washington and New York City had been so hospitable to him that he could not take sides in any fierce competition between them. In the first inning when Stengel argued too aggressively with umpire John Stevens and was tossed out of the game, Haile Selassie observed diplomatically that “each man was probably only trying to help his own side.” Before leaving the stadium at the end of seventh inning, the emperor held an impromptu news conference. In the Yankee home club box, asked by reporters how he liked the game, he replied through an interpreter. “It was not at all difficult for me to follow.” It may have helped that Major General Trudeau had answered the emperor’s questions throughout the game. Haile Selassie pointed out that his favorite game in Ethiopia was Gana, “a sort of combination of field hockey and baseball.” 34 After the game, the emperor was the evening guest of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III at their home in Tarrytown. On the following day, Tuesday, June 1, the emperor was honored with a ticker-tape parade down Broadway and a historic visit to the United Nations (see Chapter 1). On the afternoon of June 2, Haile Selassie received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Columbia University. Dr. Grayson Kirk, president of the university, made the award. The citation honored HIM for his resistance to totalitarian invasion by fascism of his own country and to communism in Korea. The emperor paid tribute to Columbia on its 200th anniversary, on its contributions to development of the United States, and on the aid it is giving to Ethiopian students. Two grandsons of the emperor Merid Beyene and his brother Samson, attended Columbia. Haile Selassie presented Kirk with a copy of the New Testament, hand-lettered in Amharic, for the university. Afterwards, at the Waldorf Hotel, the monarch awarded decorations to six distinguished New Yorkers: Mayor Wagner; Manhattan Borough President Hulan E. Jack; Richard C. Patterson; Congressman Powell; Walter White, president of the NAACP; and Bishop Robert C. Lawson A Very Royal First State Visit, 1954 63 of the Pentecostal Church. HIM also held a reception for 3,000 officials of the United Nations and the city. Earlier in the day, the emperor, escorted by Laurence Rockefeller, had visited Rockefeller Center, viewed the skyline from the 65th floor, saw color television for the first time, and attended the dress rehearsal of a television show in color. In the evening, HIM was the private dinner guest of the Council on Foreign Relations. In brief remarks, the emperor said the United Nations principle of collective security offered a better guarantee of world peace than any system of power politics, alliances, or regional arrangements among the great powers. After dinner, the royals went to the movies to seeDial M for Murder, Alfred Hitchcock’s film with Ray Milland and Grace Kelly. The show was over at 12:40 a.m. , late hours for the early rising emperor. Later the same morning, the royal party departed by air for Boston bringing to an end the state visit of the emperor. Only the events in Washington, DC, and New York City were official and the responsibility of the U.S. government. After Haile Selassie’s departure from New York, the trip became entirely unofficial and private, with the chief responsibility under the aegis of the Imperial Government of Ethiopia. 35 Of course, the Lion of Judah, while in the New World, would enjoy state visits to the other great powers of North America, Canada and Mexico, but those excursions were of no official concern to the U.S. State Department. State, however, would shadow Haile Selassie whenever he was in the United States. Haile Selassie finally had realized his long-held ambition to visit the United States. As the center of brilliant social and ceremonial functions, he had enjoyed himself and had affirmed his ability to charm a foreign public with his solemn charisma. He had practiced his particular style of personal diplomacy, made his pitch for more aid to the U.S. president, and still had hopes of receiving a positive response to his requests before he left the country. Meanwhile, having completed his dealing with official Washington and New York, HIM began a 7,000 mile, six-weeks tour of North America to see the country and to observe “industrial development and the life of the people in general.” In doing so, HIM would see more of the United States in a short time than many Americans see in a lifetime. For a visiting foreign head of state, especially one from sub-Saharan Africa, to take in so much of the American scene in 1954 was truly astounding. He left New York City with the cheers and applause of the governmental and financial capitals of the nation ringing in his ears. The Haile Selassie show had enjoyed rave reviews on and off Broadway. But would it play in Peoria?


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CHAPTER 7 The Spring of the Lion

When Haile Selassie went off on his grand tour of North America in the spring of 1954, he was traveling at a time when the weather in most places he visited was at its best. The Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah was 61 years-old and still sprightly. Several reporters commented on the emperor’s looking younger than his years and his maintaining equanimity in the face of a flurry of activities and a busy schedule. He could still scamper up and down ladders into the innards of great dams and exuberantly climb around working roughnecks and roustabouts on oil drilling rigs. A grave, courteous man of frail figure but commanding presence, HIM carried himself with shoulders squared and bearded chin imperiously up tilted, and he could hold a smart military salute for five minutes without blinking while anthems played and cannons roared. The emperor was at his best while exploring the new world, and a look at the respect he garnered from Americans of all classes and walks of life demonstrates the efficacy of his personal public diplomacy. The skillful use of public relations was his forte. The gait of the lion is relaxed until he is ready to charge. The charge is a series of great springs. So it was with Haile Selassie, who traveled relaxed until he sprang into the memories of Americans far more powerfully than he could know. On June 3, 1954, Haile Selassie arrived in a specially chartered TWA Constellation at Boston’s Logan Airport, where he was met by Mayor John B. Hynes. The two conversed in French and were whisked in The Spring of the Lion 65 an 11-car motorcade to what is now called the Old City Hall, where a crowd of about 1,000, including many of Boston’s most prominent citizens, awaited them. Brilliant skies and cool breezes greeted the emperor, who was again dressed in his field marshal’s uniform. The mayor welcomed HIM to “the oldest and best city in America.” Haile Selassie signed the city hall guest book in Amharic and told his assembled admirers, “We have been tremendously impressed with the wealth of learning amassed around the city of Boston in institutions of unparalleled influence in cultural and scientific fields.” 1 The royal party then drove to the golden-domed statehouse. Reporters noticed a new addition to the parade of limos—a Cadillac convertible sporting a huge “Welcome to Boston” sign and filled with attractive ladies from the Del-Thomas modeling agency. The car was sponsored by a state legislator from a predominately African American district in the city and definitely drew the attention of male spectators. In the executive suite of the statehouse, the emperor met Governor Christian B. Herter, who would replace the ailing John Foster Dulles as Eisenhower’s secretary of state in 1959. State employees who lined the corridor gave HIM an enthusiastic ovation as he made his way to the legislative chambers to address a joint session of the Massachusetts legislature. Haile Selassie moved with great dignity, apparently impervious of the crush of newsmen, photographers, and a heavy police guard. John Spencer had misplaced the short speech that he had prepared for HIM to deliver in English, so Haile Selassie went to the rostrum and improvised in Amharic in a low voice almost inaudible in the gallery. The translation also was low voiced. Despite the audio level, Spencer thought the emperor made a creditable oration. 2 The House adopted a resolution saluting “the career of service of Haile Selassie, a man who, standing before kings has always placed his trust in the common people.” Leaving the capital, the emperor sped to the Harvard University campus across the Charles River in Cambridge. Householders waved from apartments and boaters from the water as the motorcade passed. Sunbathers along the river side stood up to cheer. The emperor was greeted by a noontime crowd of several thousand Harvard students who formed a human aisle through which the motorcade passed. Haile Selassie parked his car in Harvard Yard and stood in his open Chrysler as the students applauded. The emperor sat down then stood up as the clapping continued. He then removed his officer’s cap and bowed with aplomb to the cheering students. Harvard President Nathan M. Pusey welcomed HIM to the campus and accompanied him to Houghton Library where the monarch examined 66 The Lion of Judah in the New World several tomes, including the first book published in Africa (in 1516), Commentary on the Book of Prayer, by David Abudraham. 3 The king of kings concluded his visit to the hub of the universe with a late lunch at the Sheraton Plaza Hotel hosted by Hynes and Herter. He told the 300 diners that Boston was “undoubtedly the cultural capital of the United States.” Prince Sahle was asked to say a few words, and in one of his rare public talks said that he was deeply moved by the reception being given his party in America. Before he left for the airport, the emperor was presented with a silver bowl, the traditional gift from Boston to visiting heads of state. Altogether the emperor had spent only six whirlwind hours in Boston, but he had impressed the Bostonians with his sincerity and his dignity. 4 OH, CANADA! The royal party left Boston for Ottawa at 4:00 p.m. on a four-engine Royal Canadian Air Force transport North Star. Only five years earlier, theNorth Star, a reengined C-54/DC-4, had been the first aircraft to fly nonstop across Canada, the 2,785 miles from Vancouver to Halifax. That feat had put the RCAF Air Transport Group on the map, a reputation further burnished during the Korean airlift in the early 1950s that was a contributing factor to bolstering UN forces during the fighting. Precisely on schedule at 6:00 p.m ., Haile Selassie was met at Ottawa’s Rockcliffe Airport by Governor General Vincent Massey, Prime Minister Louis Saint Laurent, and the Canadian chiefs of staff, resplendent in dress uniforms and carrying their swords. The emperor passed a guard of honor from the army and air force on a red-carpeted dais while a 21-gun salute boomed. Haile Selassie later confided in Spencer that in the Americas, it was the Canadians who best knew how to treat royalty. Of course, HIM may have felt more at home in Canada, being able to speak French wherever he went. His trip to Canada was described by the emperor as “a long sought opportunity.” Canadian media gave extensive coverage of Haile Selassie’s state visit and the history of Ethiopia in both English and French. The press noted that the emperor wore a Sam Browne belt, a Commonwealth-specific detail that reporters in the United States failed to recognize. 5 That evening, in honor of HIM, Massey was the host of a reception and state dinner attended by cabinet ministers and heads of diplomatic missions at his residency at Rideau Hall (Government House). Haile Selassie had completed a gourmand’s trifecta in one day, having had breakfast in New York City, lunch in Boston, and dinner in Ottawa. The Spring of the Lion 67 In remarks at the state dinner, the emperor commended the work of Canadians in the reconstruction and development of the educational system of Ethiopia. 6 On the next morning (June 5), the affable Haile Selassie was dressed in a neatly cut grey suite with a dark blue polka-dot tie, topcoat, and homburg as he drove through the capital on his way to the gothic revival suite of buildings on The Hill, as the Parliament Hill is called colloquially. Despite rain and overcast skies, many Ottawans turned out to applaud the emperor. As he entered the parliament buildings, out over the foggy air wafted the national anthem of Ethiopia played by Robert Donnell, carillonneur. HIM marched slowly from the Senate to the Commons side, accompanied in stately procession, first by the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, and then by the Sergeant at Arms of the Commons. It was the apotheosis of regal pomp and circumstance, and the emperor gloried in it. When Haile Selassie took his seat in the diplomatic gallery to observe the Commons debate, the members pounded their desks in salutation. The king of kings sat impassively as the Speaker expressed Parliament’s welcome. The public galleries were unusually crowded for a morning session. The Ottawa Citizen noted that upon entering the gallery, Haile Selassie “did more than any British king [could] do.” Ever since the Commons had banned Prince Charles, no British monarch had ever set foot in the Commons. The emperor wore reading glasses low on his nose as he read in French and English his address at the opening of Parliament “in recognition of Canada’s valuable support to Ethiopia’s claims to Eritrea at the time of the Paris Peace Conference.” 7 He expressed his pleasure in being in Ottawa “in this centennial year.” After leaving the diplomatic gallery, Haile Selassie held a press conference where he spoke softly in Amharic to a crowd of newsmen who jammed the parliamentary press gallery lounge. The little king was described as having Solomonlike qualities when he was asked whether there were any statesmen in the world today with the attributes of his wise forebear, Solomon. The ruler pondered the question for some time before replying. Then he softly said, “There are very many wise men in the world today. It is difficult to choose one; other wise men might not like it.” 8 In the afternoon, Massey held a reception attended by cabinet ministers and heads of diplomatic missions. In shaking hands with the dignitaries, Haile Selassie limply presented only a piece of his hand that one could not “crush or squeeze.” This defensive mechanism, called “a trick of famous men” by the Canadian press, saved the hand of HIM to shake another day. The sangfroid perseverance of the emperor earned 68 The Lion of Judah in the New World him the accolade of “probably the most informal monarch who ever visited Ottawa.” 9 That evening, Massey escorted the emperor to Rockcliffe airport and bade him farewell as the monarch left the city and flew in a RCAF aircraft to Montreal. There, the bearded monarch was the guest of the Montreal Metropolitan Commission, at a reception attended by 225 at the Windsor Hotel and at a dinner for 1,200 at Chalet de la Montaigne, situated on Mont-Royal with the most spectacular view of Montreal. 10 On June 5, the emperor received an honorary degree from McGill University at a special convocation. 11 Afterward, a luncheon was given for HIM by Gaspard Fauteux, the lieutenant governor of Quebec before the royal party was driven to the Port of Montreal through applauding crowds in the crowded street. The royals sailed down the Saint Lawrence River to Quebec City aboard the government ship d’Iberville, an icebreaker. Haile Selassie was the recipient of another honorary degree from Laval University in Quebec City, the oldest center of education in Canada and the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French. From there the emperor flew to Windsor, Ontario, where he spent the night. WESTWARD, HO! Early the next morning, the royal party drove North across Ambassador Bridge to Detroit, where they were met by top officials and dignitaries of the city. At a reception at the Detroit City Hall, Mayor Albert Cobo presented HIM with the key to the city and a medallion showing the beginning and growth of the Motor City. In a brief press conference, Haile Selassie lauded the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision that “won the praise of the entire world.” A crowd of 3,000 gathered outside City Hall and cheered as the slight, military-erect monarch departed. His motorcade drove to Ann Arbor, where, in a morning convocation HIM received an honorary degree of doctor of civil laws from the University of Michigan, the oldest land-grant state university in the country. The royals then enjoyed a luncheon with the university’s regents and leading faculty members. Haile Selassie presented the university with an antique Amharic Bible for its rare books collection. 12 From Ann Arbor, the royals flew to the state capital, Lansing, for a tour of an Oldsmobile automobile plant as guests of General Motors and then to a reception given by Michigan Governor G. Mennen Williams, which was attended by 80 state officials. HIM presented the governor with a gold medal and in return was given a ceramic plate The Spring of the Lion 69 with a map of Michigan on it and a bow tie (a sartorial trade mark of Governor “Soapy” Williams). In the afternoon, at the Lansing Airport, the royal party boarded the special TWA Super Constellation, Star of Bombay, the aircraft that would be their air transport throughout the rest of their stay in the United States. The plane was especially equipped with the front made into a state room compartment for the royal family, with drapes shutting it off from the rest of the plane. Handsome, thick carpets and rugs were laid in the compartment. According to the pilot, Captain V. J. Statt, of Kansas City, “The royals stayed in the compartment by themselves.” On the tarmac in Lansing, the engines of the red and white TWA plane came to life. TheStar of Bombay sped down the runway, cut across the sun and pointed westward toward Chicago. As they approached the Windy City, Haile Selassie was impressed by the air view and asked the pilot to circle the city before landing. Captain Statt found the emperor to be very reserved and stately, and conducted himself “as you’d expect a monarch should. He asked questions about everything.” 13 The grave, courteous king, the first reigning emperor ever to visit Chicago, was greeted at Midway Airport by Mayor Martin H. Kennelly. The mayor described HIM as “a world figure who symbolizes lion-hearted courage and passionate resistance to aggression and enslavement.” The emperor made the mayor a Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Ethiopia, the award level apparently deemed appropriate for mayors and city leaders. The royal party then was driven, with a motorcycle escort, to the Drake Hotel on North Michigan Avenue, where they occupied 31 rooms. A cheering crowd of 25,000 lined the route from the airport along Michigan Avenue. 14 A young graduate student at the University of Chicago, Donald Levine, who later would be the dean of American Ethiopianists, had to move quickly to the route of the motorcade to catch a glimpse of the emperor speeding by. At the crack of dawn the next morning, Haile Selassie started a whirlwind of activity, beginning with a visit to the mammoth Chicago union stockyards, where the little king gaped at the livestock and shook hands with a towering cowboy from Montana. This was followed by a tour of the Swift and Company packing plant. After a lunch with 1,000 civic leaders at the Sherman Hotel, the royal party took an afternoon Burlington train to Cicero, Illinois, where they inspected a railroad roundhouse and a steel mill, the South Works of U.S. Steel. Back in Chicago, HIM made an unscheduled stop to attend a worship service at the Parkway Baptist Church, where he briefly addressed a mainly African American congregation of 3,000. Ending a 70 The Lion of Judah in the New World tightly scheduled, 24-hour stay in Chicago, the royals took an evening flight to Saint Paul. 15 The Star of Bombay landed at the Twin Cities airport, and the emperor was greeted by the mayors of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The small man of great composure and many titles looked drawn and weary as he inspected another honor guard and made his way to the Hotel Saint Paul. But the next morning he was full of energy, which was a good thing, because Ambassador Simonson had requested HIM to spend considerable time in Minnesota, his home state, and had scheduled a very full day of activities. The Defender of the Faith attended early devotions at Christ Lutheran Church on Capitol Hill, where Simonson had been the pastor. After a Scandinavian breakfast at the church, the emperor walked across the street to visit the state capitol and meet Governor C. Elmer Anderson. The royal’s 13-car caravan led by Haile Selassie in a flashy red convertible then paraded through downtown Saint Paul and, accompanied by troops of the Minnesota National Guard and the highway patrol, crossed the Mississippi River to Minneapolis. They visited the state fair, the main campus and agricultural campus of the University of Minnesota, and a flour mill on their drive through the city. The cavalcade drove southeast to Rochester, Minnesota, where the royal party saw the Mayo Clinic. Youngsters waving little Ethiopian flags greeted the emperor as he drove through small towns. The motorcade continued 90 miles south to make a brief stop at a typical Minnesota farm, where the fields were green with sprouted corn. After looking over beef cattle foraging in pasture, the royals were served crisp homemade cookies and lemonade by their hosts, the Doty family. The tour resumed with the entourage viewing wheat fields and fodder-filled silos jutting up from barnyards in southern Minnesota. 16 At Austin, Simonson’s hometown, they donned white coats and inspected the Hormel Meat Packing Plant, home of Spam. Haile Selassie was interested in the meatpacking industry because, as he noted, Ethiopia had none. The response of the citizens of Austin to a royal visit was typical of the exuberance displayed by small towns in America in playing hosts to the distinguished Ethiopian guests. The local newspaper had a banner-sized headline, “Austin Entertains Royalty.” 17 An editorial stated, “Austin today welcomed sincerely and with warm felicitations its distinguished guest, Emperor Haile Selassie. It also whets our community pride to note that Austin and the Midwest’s metropolis, Chicago, shared an initial experience—the first time either community has had occasion to be host to an emperor.” The content of the Austin The Spring of the Lion 71 editorial, the main points repeated in newspaper editorials throughout the country, recalled the events surrounding the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie’s attempts to modernize his nation, his efforts to rule as a constitutional rather than absolute monarch, and the status of Ethiopia as a nation friendly to the United States. On the way back to Saint Paul, the emperor stopped at Northfield where he visited two liberal arts college, Saint Olaf, Simonson’s alma mater, where he had tea with Clements Granshou, the college president, and Carleton College. En route, The royals made an impromptu stop at the town, Owatonna, which was celebrating its centennial. All males in the area were ordered to grow beards or face indignant punishments. The celebrants refused to let the motorcade pass until they made a presentation to HIM in honor of his beard. They gave the emperor a top hat, some wooden nickels, and a T-shirt. The little king was amused. Later, he sent the town a medal from Ethiopia. At a press conference in Saint Paul, Haile Selassie told reporters he was favorably impressed with U.S. agriculture being so carefully planned and thought out. He found that America surpassed anything he knew or had read about the United States. In the evening, a civic state dinner honoring HIM was held in the University of Minnesota Memorial Union Ballroom. Dr. Charles W. Mayo, head of the Mayo Clinic and president of the American Association for the United Nations, presided. Mayo introduced Simonson who introduced HIM to the overflow crowd of diners. Among those attending was Carl Rowan, then a prize-winning reporter with the Minneapolis Tribune, who would later have a distinguished career in diplomacy. In his remarks, the monarch stressed that a recently negotiated commercial treaty and an American dollar-based currency in Ethiopia should encourage the investment of American capital in his country. The emperor added to the evergrowing ranks of the Order of the Star of Ethiopia by making Mayor Eric Hoyer a grand officer of the order. 18 On the morning of June 10, the royal party flew to Spokane, Washington, landing at Geiger Field. Washington’s acting Governor Emmett T. Anderson was the official greeter and host of the inland empire. The entourage drove directly to the Grand Coulee Dam, where they observed the facilities with which the mighty Columbia River had been harnessed. They inspected the powerhouse and pumping plant, accompanied by officials of the reclamation bureau. The emperor, who climbed down some long ladders during the tour, was especially interested in the dam operations because he was “hoping to return to his native Ethiopia with plans for development of water-power projects for 72 The Lion of Judah in the New World that country.” At the time, the United States was assisting in surveying the Blue Nile, a great potential power source. 19 After the tour, the party returned to the Davenport Hotel, where they spent the night. 20 The emperor’s flight to Seattle the next morning received a military jet escort into the airport, and HIM was greeted with the crash of a 21-gun salute upon deplaning. The royals visited a massive Boeing Aircraft plant, where 35,000 workers, including 5,000 engineers were employed. The visitors saw the prototype U.S. Air Force B-52 jet bomber, described as mighty, which was still a year away from being put in active service. Boeing was about to enter the infant jet airliner business, and the emperor was intrigued with the company’s new designs. For decades thereafter, Ethiopian Airlines was one of Boeing’s best customers. After lunch with the commanding officer of the Bremerton Naval Base, Admiral Homer N. Wallin, at his residency, and a tour of the base, the entourage went to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where HIM was cheered by thousands who threw confetti in his path. The navy brass took Haile Selassie on an inspection of a destroyer. In the evening, the mayor of Seattle, Allan Pomeroy, gave a reception for the monarch at the swank Rainier Club, which was attended by 1,000 people. On the next day, the emperor made one of the few cancellations of a scheduled event when he decided not to make a trip to Mount Rainier in order to rest. 21 Haile Selassie and his entourage were serenaded by the Shrine Oriental Band at the Olympic Hotel where both groups were staying. Shriners and their interpretation of oriental splendor had also shared public attention with HIM at Princeton, where they had begun a downtown parade just as the emperor’s motorcade was leaving. On June12, the royal party had an afternoon departure for San Francisco on the Sothern Pacific Railroad’s streamliner the Klamath . The emperor complained to Seattle reporters that he was so close to the Pacific Ocean but had not had an opportunity to see it. That travel goal was taken care of from the two special Pullman cars and an observation lounge on Southern Pacific’s scenic route along the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and northern California. On the night of June 13, the royal party arrived in Oakland at the Mole, the massive railways wharf and ferry pier that was still in use in the 1950s. The wharf was used to transport railroad freight cars across the bay to San Francisco. A crowd of 1,500 was at the station to greet the emperor, smiling and gracious, as he stepped down from his Pullman. Mayor Clifford Rishell of Oakland officially welcomed HIM and gave him yet another key to a city. The emperor made him a The Spring of the Lion 73 Commander of the Order of the Star of Ethiopia. 22 The royals had arrived on Flag Day, and the Oakland Tribune had a welcoming editorial and a Lou Grant political cartoon showing Ethiopia under the jackboot of Italy and Haile Selassie telling an American, “Never take your flag for granted, my friend. . . .” The indefatigable little king then took his place in a nine-limousine motorcade with a motorcycle escort of six white-helmeted Oakland police for a ride across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco’s Nob Hill. A throng of 500, who were waiting in the lobby of the Mark Hopkins Hotel, applauded when Haile Selassie strode in. The emperor was housed in the palatial Imperial Suite on the 17th floor that featured a glass-terraced bedroom commanding an inspiring view of downtown San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, and Oakland beyond. The suite was only two floors beneath the renowned Top o’ the Mark, the hotel bar with famed view windows. A $60,000 refurbishment of the Imperial Suite had been completed only two days before, and the bathroom had 24-carat gold handles. HIM’s first query was, “Where is the bathroom with gold knobs? I’ve been hearing about it.” He was officially welcomed by City Attorney Dion Holm before setting out for the Veterans Administration hospital at Fort Miley. There he visited Ethiopian and U.S. soldiers who had been wounded in Korea and presented the hospital with a six-foot gold-plated cross for the chapel. The royals enjoyed a leisurely drive through Golden Gate Park and were received at the stately City Hall by Mayor Elmer Robinson just before noon. The mayor presented HIM with gifts—a gavel made of redwood and a Steuben Glass goblet. Haile Selassie gave the mayor two elephant tusks tipped with gold on a wooden base. He then bestowed Order of the Star of Ethiopia titles and medals on California Governor Goodwin Knight (Knight of the Grand Cross) and Mayor Robinson (Grand Commander). A reporter noted that Princess Seble “limped as if her feet were killing her.” 23 The royal party’s motorcade drove down Market Street, which was lined with cheering spectators. Haile Selassie waved both hands in response and smiled. HIM addressed a luncheon meeting of the Commonwealth Club at the Palace Hotel, attended by 1,000 people. He told the members it was inspiring to see “the way of life of this great nation” and “the happiness and prosperity of its citizens.” For three minutes the emperor praised California and its climate—so much like Ethiopia. He confessed to being fond of eating California fruits. In the late afternoon, the World Affairs Council of Northern California held a reception for HIM at the Gold Room of the Fairmont Hotel. The emperor 74 The Lion of Judah in the New World expressed the hope that the strength of the United States would be a preventive of war. He asserted that big nations could best combat the spread of communism “by giving economic help to small nations.” The very full day for HIM concluded with dinner at the Press and Union League Club. When asked about the U.S. Supreme Court decisionBrown v. Board of Education, the emperor said, “The decision will not only strengthen the ties between Ethiopia and the United States but also will win friends everywhere in the world.” 24 The next morning, the royal party departed by car for Yosemite National Park. They had decided to drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles rather than fly, in order to see the redwoods and the spectacular scenery around Big Sur. The U.S. State Department had assigned John Utter as liaison officer to accompany Haile Selassie on the eight-hour drive. On the way, the emperor saw anchored in Suisun Bay a large number of ships that were not being used. Utter explained that these ships were in the U.S. “mothball fleet” and that they were largely old World War II ships that were being retained in this status as an emergency measure. They were not available for sale or transfer, and even if they were they would require considerable costly rehabilitation. 25 The emperor’s vision apparently was better than his hearing, for he subsequently inquired about getting some of the vessels for Ethiopia’s navy. Utter also was involved in what John Spencer described as a rare moment of levity with HIM. At one point when conversation flagged, Haile Selassie asked, “How many children do you have, Mr. Utter?” “Sir, I am not married” was the reply. “But you have not answered by question, Mr. Utter” was Haile Selassie’s wry retort. 26 The travelers had a brief rest stop at a hotel in Modesto, where the local press noted that they did not attract a large crowd. The royals arrived at noon at Yosemite, where they spent the night. In the park, they saw the Wawona big trees, the giant redwoods, Mirror Lake, and several waterfalls. On the following day, they visited Sequoia National Park en route to Los Angeles and saw Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous 48 United States, and, at 14,505 feet, is slightly shorter than Ethiopia’s tallest, Mount Ras Deshan. After a 500 mile drive from Yosemite, the emperor arrived in Los Angeles the next evening escorted by state highway patrol cars and a dozen motorcycles officers. He registered at the Ambassador Hotel where near the lobby was a throne, a white velvet chair in the center of a dais that had been set up for the occasion. HIM, attired in a field marshal’s uniform, sat on the throne with a rich canopy above with a backdrop of beige and aquamarine velvet. He looked tired but was The Spring of the Lion 75 unruffled by brilliant floodlights and flashing bulbs as he faced a battery of questions from reporters, movie news cameras, and television interviewers. His demeanor was serene and imperially august. 27 The royal party went to Glendale Hospital and Sanitarium, a Seventh Day Adventist Church institution, where they enjoyed a reunion and vegetarian buffet supper with three married couples, missionaries and physicians, who had served in Ethiopia. The church maintained four hospitals that were established 28 years before in Ethiopia. One of the physicians, Dr. George C. Bergman, had not seen Haile Selassie in 10 years. At the reception, HIM met the 84-year-old mother of his supervisor of the palace, Della Hanson, also a missionary. 28 The next morning the entourage drove through movie-land homes of Beverly Hills and Bel Air and toured the 20th Century Fox motion picture studio. In the studio they made their way through cowtowns, a New England fishing village, Egyptian temples, and Old South manses. The Royals witnessed the shooting ofDésirée, a costume drama about Napoleon and Josephine, directed by Henry Koster. There Haile Selassie I met Napoleon the First, who was portrayed by Marlon Brando. Did HIM know he was seeing the model of antiestablishment behavior outfitted for the role of Napoleon in the film? The emperor told Brando that he had seenJulius Caesar on the United States coming over. Speaking in French he added, the picture was tres jolie. Brando gazed at the two medallions on his costume and at the 10 rows of decorations on the emperor’s uniform (many of his own design) and remarked, “You’ve won more battles than I have.” The emperor shook hands with actress Jean Simmons, resplendent in a 19th-century costume. She was one of a very few on the set who did not tower over HIM. The costumes were impressive, and Désirée ’s costume design was nominated for an Academy Award the next year. The always technologically inquisitive emperor looked through the lens of a CinemaScope camera, a new wide-screen type of motion picture popular at the time. At the luncheon provided by 20th Century Fox, Marilyn Monroe did not appear as had been announced, but Rita Moreno attracted much interest in a low-cut dress. Before leaving the studio, the movie-loving monarch, who was like an overjoyed little boy at a candy store, also met and posed with film stars Merle Oberon (who was the Empress Josephine inDésirée ), Dan Dailey, Bella Darvi, Edmund Purdom, Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, and Reginald Gardiner. 29 At 12:00 noon, Mayor Norris Poulson held a private reception for the emperor at City Hall. Haile Selassie, wearing a jaunty sports cap, was cheered by thousands as he made his way to the city hall forecourt. 76 The Lion of Judah in the New World Though jaunty laid the head that wore that crown, there were, alas, no photographs of the L.A. sartorial headgear. The mayor stopped HIM at the threshold and pointed out the inscription quoting King Solomon carved in stone above the door: “Righteousness exalteth a people.” In his private suite, the Mayor gave the king an illuminated leatherbound folio of his remarks, and Haile Selassie made Poulson a Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Ethiopia. At the mayor’s luncheon at the Ambassador Hotel, the 1,000 in attendance gave HIM a standing ovation. In brief remarks, the emperor compared California and Ethiopia: We have been impressed with the richness and importance of your state. The long trip through the Northwest has shown us the unending wealth of forests and streams and mineral resources, all of which remind us of Ethiopia. You are, at the same time, a rich agricultural state, and to cap it all, an industrial state, where the industry extends from oil to that of cinema. Surely you have reason to be proud of California. 30 “Only in Ethiopia,” he said, “can a climate equal to that of California be found.” The emperor expressed the hope that the United States and Ethiopia could arrange for young Ethiopians to attend agricultural colleges in America. He said he was grateful for the great work of missionaries in his country and promised his continued interest and support.31 In the afternoon the royal party drove to Long Beach to tour oil wells and harbor installations, where the transient cargo sheds were the largest in world. They saw the new $40 million Richfield Refinery at Watson. Sinclair Oil, the parent organization of Richfield, had leases with the IEG to test for oil potentials in Ethiopia. The emperor anticipated the development of oil production in Ethiopia, so directional oil-well drilling as carried out in Long Beach captured his attention. The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners made HIM an honorary pilot and presented him with a miniature ship’s wheel of Philippine mahogany and a book of photographs of the harbor bound in redwood. While on a tour of the world’s largest pier, Haile Selassie confessed to reporters that he had cultivated a taste for American milkshakes. Before driving to the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains, where he would spend the night at Arrowhead Springs, the emperor received baskets of luscious fresh fruit and California-grown supreme dates picked in the nearby Coachella Valley. 32The Spring of the Lion 77 At this point in his travels in North America, the emperor made a singular stop in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The reason Haile Selassie went to this small town in the middle of the United States was to personally thank Oklahoma State University (then called Oklahoma A&M) for its work in assisting in modernizing agriculture and education in his nation under one of the first Point Four Programs. A dinner and reception for Haile Selassie and his 19-person entourage held at the college’s new student union building on June 18 was the social event of the year (and possibly of the century) in Oklahoma and signaled the ascent of Oklahoma A&M to the top ranks of U.S. universities involved in technical assistance and international education. It was the first visit to Oklahoma by a reigning foreign head of state. At the time, the emperor was 61 years of age; the state of Oklahoma, only 46 years old. The royal party had flown from the Ontario, California, International Airport to Stillwater aboard the Star of Bombay . The flight took about four hours, but the pilot, at the emperor’s request, had circled over Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam for 20 minutes. At 3:30 p.m. , the Star of Bombay landed at Stillwater’s Municipal Airport, where a crowd of 1,100—including national, state, and local dignitaries—was on hand to greet the emperor. It was a hot late spring day with a temperature near 100 degrees, and many women carried parasols. The Stars and Stripes and the tricolor banner of Ethiopia hung from two new flag poles erected for the occasion at the Searcy Field airport. The aircraft stairs were rolled out to the rear door of the plane, the official welcoming officials were poised in the heat at the foot of the stairs, and all was ready for a hearty greeting of the emperor. The A&M band played—and played—but no Conquering Lion of Judah appeared. Inside the plane, HIM had his eyes fixed on his country’s tricolor flapping in the breeze. The Okies had hung the flag upside down, reversing the three horizontal stripes of green, yellow, and red. The pilot of theStar of Bombay radioed the gaffe to the control tower. After a few minutes, the Ethiopian flag was lowered, reversed, and raised again. 33 HIM, assured that proper protocol had been followed, emerged from the plane dressed in a field marshal’s suntan dress uniform and gave a smart salute to his audience. He was officially welcomed by A&M’s president, Oliver Willham, Stillwater Mayor A. B. Alcott, and other officials. The emperor had requested an opportunity to see “an Indian,” and Acee Blue Eagle, a well-known Native American artist from Okmulgee, in full Pawnee headdress and buckskin clothing, presented Haile Selassie with a war bonnet and gave him the name “Great 78 The Lion of Judah in the New World Buffalo High Chief.” 34 Chief Blue Eagle evoked from the dead-panned emperor his most genuine smile of the Oklahoma trip. An impromptu press conference ensued with Haile Selassie praising the area’s cattle and grain production. He noted that modern coffee production in his country had been improved by the work of a number of scientists sent there under the Point Four Program. As a result of A&M’s effort, Ethiopia had been able to “benefit other nations.” Some 17 A&M deans, professors, and administrative officials and their wives had been assigned as escorts for the visitors. 35 They shepherded the royal party into convertibles provided by a local automobile dealer for the occasion and traveled to the A&M campus in a parade of Buicks. The leather car seats were quite hot because the autos had been sitting for an hour in direct sunlight. 36 The guests took a quick tour of the library and classroom building, where they were shown original blueprints of the proposed Imperial Agricultural College, before going to their rooms at the “fashionable Student Union hotel.” 37 A&M’s new Student Union was described as “the Waldorf Astoria of Student Unions.” The emperor and his entourage stayed in the Presidential Suite, the entire third floor of the hotel. A snack bar was set up for the visitors on the fourth floor, and Prince Sahle had a jukebox in his room, 38 where he enjoyed listening to records of Frank Sinatra and other swooncrooners and occidental moaner-chanters. Prince Sahle also showed a fondness for the union’s special-deluxe hot dogs and ice cream sundaes.39 He and Acee Blue Eagle had both studied at Oxford, so the prince and the Pawnee chief enjoyed visiting about their student days. At six in the evening, 300 guests were invited to a formal dinner in the Student Union that had been festooned with Ethiopian, U.S., and Oklahoma flags. The invitation list was a who’s who of the Oklahoma power elite of the time. Among the guests were U.S. Senator Robert S. Kerr, Representative Carl Albert and other congressmen, Governor Johnston E. Murray, Lieutenant Governor James E. Berry, state legislators, mayors of six Oklahoma cities, the board of regents for Oklahoma A&M College and the Oklahoma state regents for higher education, 16 college and university presidents, A&M administrators, faculty, students, alumni, and business leaders and ministers from Stillwater. 40 Extra security guards were posted around the union building to protect the royal family and to help direct guests to their proper destinations. 41 In his after dinner welcoming speech, Governor Murray mangled the pronunciation of Ethiopia, calling it “Oklamopia,” 42 but he praised Haile Selassie as “a symbol of the spark of freedom.” 43 President Willham presented His Imperial Majesty with a scroll expressing respect The Spring of the Lion 79 and sincere admiration for Haile Selassie. The college gave the emperor a bronze plaque, given “in behalf of the citizens of Oklahoma,” commemorating A&M’s successful program of technical assistance and economic cooperation. The plaque read as follows: The Imperial Ethiopian College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts was founded through the devoted interest and zeal of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, and his ministers with the advisement and cooperation of the Oklahoma A&M college in the interest of and welfare of the people of Ethiopia in the year 1952a.d.44 Haile Selassie subsequently had the plaque mounted in the cornerstone of the administration building at the new Alemaya campus, where it is still on display today. The emperor gave citations and gold medals to three university officials and made them officers of the Order of the Star of Ethiopia. Ambassador Simonson summarized the festive dinner by observing incorrectly that in the Amharic language something that was superlative was described as “ ishi .” Said Simonson, “This, in Amharic, is a veryishi occasion.” 45 Ishi means “okay,” not a superlative. Those present might disagree with Simonsen’s unintended understated evaluation. After the dinner program, the emperor joined Governor Murray and President Willham and their wives in a receiving line to greet some 1,600 guests who were invited to a reception in the student union ballroom in honor of Haile Selassie. 46 After the first hour, those in attendance were asked to leave in order for the remainder of the guests to be able to get into the room. 47 Upon completing his handshaking ordeal, the emperor took a seat on a huge chair in the banquet room—A&M’s best approximation of a throne. Newspaper reporters present described Haile Selassie as “stern and dignified,” “a solemn but friendly man” “with the face of an aesthete.” 48 The emperor, again in a brief talk, expressed his thanks to A&M: I have made an exception to my usual practice on this trip in leaving my itinerary entirely and making this 2,000 mile trip in order to express to you my deep appreciation. This trip has given me the opportunity to visit a truly great agricultural and mechanical college. What I have seen here this afternoon has confirmed my conviction in the enormous possibilities which lie as yet still to be uncovered in Ethiopia. 4980 The Lion of Judah in the New World When the reception came to an end at 10:00 p.m ., Haile Selassie held a private audience with members of the family of the late Henry G. Bennett—a measure of the high regard in which the emperor held the former A&M president and Point Four director, who had tragically been killed in an airplane crash in Iran while on a tour of Point Four projects.50 In a photograph taken at the audience, HIM holds one of Bennett’s granddaughters in his lap—a very rare picture of a relaxed Haile Selassie holding a child. Even with his own family, the emperor was not publicly seen or much less photographed with a child on his lap. During the night following the dinner, the emperor suffered an upset stomach and had to have medical attention. Stillwater physician George Gathers was called at about 3:30 a.m. He and the emperor conversed in French, and the doctor “administered opiates and sulfa drugs and advised the emperor to get more rest.” For his services, Gathers was paid with a solid gold medallion commemorating the emperor’s coronation. 51 The dinner and reception were the biggest social events in A&M’s history. 52 The attire for those attending was “strictly formal: “black ties and dark tuxedo coats for men (white jackets were acceptable for the dinner); formal dinner dresses either “ballerina or full length” for the ladies. Local merchants reported that tuxedo rentals exceeded all demands previously set by fraternity parties, and clothing stores in Oklahoma City and Tulsa reported a brisk business in formal attire. Tulsa newspaper columnist Roger Devlin reported that the “faint, tangy aroma which hung over the banquet hall was moth balls.” 53 ¡VIVA MÉXICO! VIVA ETIOPIA! On Saturday morning, the royal party left Stillwater at 7:45 a.m. for Mexico City and a five-day state visit. They were met at a new multimillion dollar airport by the President of Mexico, Ruiz Cortines, and his cabinet. The president walked up to the aircraft stairs and shook hands with the emperor. “My people have asked me to tell you that they are with Your Imperial Highness and the great Ethiopian people,” said Corines. HIM was visibly touched by the warm welcome extended to him. It was the first time an emperor of Ethiopia had set foot in Latin America. 54 Thousands of people cried “Viva Etiopia!” and cheered the emperor on route to his hotel along streets lined with army troops, 10,000 of whom were on duty for the official welcome. 55 The royals’ motorcade was accompanied by a mounted honor guard of cadets from the Colegio Militas. Throughout their visit, the Ethiopian The Spring of the Lion 81 ambassador to Mexico translated Spanish speeches into Amharic for the emperor and the royal party. Another granddaughter of HIM, Princess Sofia Desta, the younger sister of Princess Seble, joined the party in Mexico City from London, where she was studying. 56 Haile Selassie took part in a solemn ceremony with the presidential guard at the towering Columna de la Independencia, or victory column. At the base of the column was a large statue of a Lion led by a child. Nearby, the Lion of Judah laid a wreath at the freedom statue. The royals visited the palatial Castle of Chapultepec with its monument to the boy heroes killed during the Mexican-American War in 1847. It was from the Battle of Chapultepec and the subsequent occupation of Mexico City by American forces that the line “From the Halls of Montezuma” in the U.S. Marine Hymn is derived. 57 With the mayor of Mexico City, the royal party saw the traffic circle Plaza Etiopia. The mayor explained that during the fascist occupation of Ethiopia, Mexico refused to recognize Italy’s claim to Abyssinia and had named the plaza in honor of HIM’s valiant country. The emperor was quite moved by this gesture and promised to repay this honor. The creation of Mexico Square in Addis Ababa was the result of this exchange. Mexican culture was on display for the visitors at rancho de La Tapatia, where they saw a bullfight, a rodeo, an exhibition by national horsemen, and a dance performance. Afterwards, Haile Selassie was given a very wide-brimmed Mexican sombrero. At the National Palace, the emperor was honored with a champagne lunch, during which the two heads of state exchanged titles and medals. President Cortines presented HIM with the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest decoration awarded to foreigners in the country. In return, the emperor gave Cortines the Most Exalted Order of the Queen of Sheba. To conclude the program, Mexican youth sang the Ethiopian national anthem in Amharic. At the striking, recently completed Ciudad Universitaria, the national autonomous university of Mexico, Haile Selassie gave the university a large photograph of himself. He told a gathering of the academic community that their campus was more beautiful than any university in the United States. The emperor presented the Greek Orthodox Church of Santa Sofia a special carpet woven in Ethiopia. The priest’s homily delivered in Greek was translated into French for HIM. The Defender of the Faith also paid visits to the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, the largest and oldest catholic cathedral in the Americas; the enormous Basilica de Nuestra Senorna de Guadalupe (Saint Mary’s), where, according to tradition, the celebrated Catholic image of the Virgin Mary miraculously appeared on the cloak of a peasant 82 The Lion of Judah in the New World in 1531 (the emperor made a gift to the shrine of a decorative Persian rug); and the 16-century Monastery Church of Saint Augustine with its elegant façade at Acolman where, according to myth, the first man was placed after being taken out of nearby Lake Texoco (would this be competition to early humanoid claims of the Omo River Valley in Ethiopia?). The royals also traveled 25 miles to the Aztec pyramids of San Juan Teotihuacán, “the place where gods were born,” an appropriate destination for a monarch deified by Rastafarians. In a ceremony at the Old Palace, “Palacio de Ayuntamiento,” Mexico City’s town hall, Haile Selassie gave the city gifts of elephant tusks, spears, and a shield. In Greater Mexico City, the royal party visited a modern steel factory and the public Hospital de la Raza, part of the ubiquitous Mexican health-care program IMSS, built at a cost of U.S. $4.5 million. The hospital uniquely featured spectacular frescos in its lobby by Mexican artists David Siqueiros and Diego Rivera. A diplomatic reception for the emperor was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The largest formal event of the trip to Mexico was the state banquet honoring HIM, hosted by President Cortines at the National Palace. The royals went to Cuernavaca, “the city of eternal Spring,” for a two-day respite. There, the movie-buff emperor enjoyed meeting Cantinflas, the comedian and film star, known as the Charlie Chaplin of Mexico. The roster of motion picture actor-acquaintances of Haile Selassie had grown considerably since Hollywood film star Tyrone Power had been a guest of the emperor in Addis Ababa in 1947 (just after he had completed filming the film noir “Nightmare Alley”). 58 Film star Robert Wagner, who HIM had met on this trip, also later visited Haile Selassie in the palace. 59 On June 25, 1954, Haile Selassie was seen off at the airport by President Cortines and a cheering multitude of Mexican well-wishers. The emperor gave a final sharp salute to the guard of honor before boarding theStar of Bombay and flying to New Orleans. THE DEEP SOUTH The red and white TWA plane arrived at New Orleans’ Moisant International Airport with an enthusiastic crowd of 1,000 on hand to welcome the royal guests. When a 21-gun salute started and HIM, wearing a khaki field marshal uniform highlighted by red and gold lapels, gave a smart salute at the doorway of the plane, “into his eyes came an expression which made him look every inch the ruler”—wrote a reporter of the scene. After another prolonged military salute during the The Spring of the Lion 83 playing of the Ethiopian national anthem, the emperor boarded a yellow convertible and led a parade of open cars down historic Canal Street, with presidents or representatives of the seven principal business organizations and civic bodies that formed a citizens’ reception committee. Spectators along the way cheered and waved. 60 Centuries-old precedents and prejudices were shattered or ignored when the Deep South metropolis straddling the Mississippi River entertained and honored Haile Selassie. In a lively 26-hour program, the emperor saw more of New Orleans than many residents do in a lifetime. His visit initiated an unheard of display of racial tolerance, in which ancient segregation laws were forgotten. Although threatening telephone calls had been made to the Roosevelt Hotel, where the monarch occupied the International Suite, and to city hall and International House protesting the planned courtesies for the royal party, the elaborate schedule was carried out without an untoward incident. The hotel management reported more than 500 menacing calls. All were ignored, as were the others. Officials believed that all the calls stemmed from an organized source. Despite 90-degree heat, HIM moved with enthusiasm and interest in the “most unique” city in America. 61 On the day of their arrival in “The City that Care Forgot,” one of the few public sour notes about the emperor during his American tour was sent out on the wires of United Press (now United Press International). Congressman Usher L. Burdick (R-ND), who had vociferously opposed U.S. action in the Korean War, wrote a letter to his constituents, lashing out at Haile Selassie as a “perfectly ruthless dictator” who was trying to get U.S. aid under the guise of a democracy. In a racist, anti-foreign-aid diatribe, Burdick accused Haile Selassie of engaging in “a huge slave traffic.” According to the congressman, during World War II, “Natives from the jungles were rounded up and driven like cattle to the slave markets operated by Selassie.” Echoing Mussolini’s fascists, Burdick asserted that the emperor’s “antics indicated that he was an absolute and ruthless dictator, who had all the barbarous instincts of a complete savage.” The sources of Burdick’s information were not cited, but the letter was published in theLos Angeles Times and other UP-licensed print outlets. 62 Haile Selassie was the guest of honor at an official meeting of the city council at city hall, during which all members of the royal party were made honorary citizens of New Orleans and were given golden keys to city (HIM’s was solid gold). Mayor deLesseps S. Morrison greeted the emperor in French, and Haile Selassie presented the mayor with two battle spears and a war shield. HIM said he knew of the “worldwide 84 The Lion of Judah in the New World reputation” of New Orleans and was proud to accept its citizenship. In the racially segregated Big Easy, the monarch held a precedentshattering press conference in the mayor’s private office during which he commented freely on the need for human equality in the world. He cited the Supreme Court’s Brown decision as being “in accord with the Constitution and one which would give the U.S. greater prestige in the world.” HIM again praised the virtues of collective security and emphasized that “if the smaller nations are heard by the General Assembly (of the UN), the peace will be surer.” The emperor was interviewed in French and quoted in the local newspapers in that languageOn parle la Paix . The monarch said he wastres content with New Orleans. The “gracious, easy-mannered” Prince Sahle told reporters that he had heard about New Orleans’ fried chicken, shrimp, and hot jazz and wanted to investigate all of them. 63 The royal party and city officials proceeded to Dillard University in open cars. There, the emperor received a citation in the presence of probably the largest mixed assemblage in New Orleans history up until that time. At a social reception at the home of university president A. W. Dent, “scores of the city’s principal white business leaders mixed with prominent local Negroes in honoring Haile Selassie.” The formal reception and state dinner that evening at New Orleans’ International House was much more a racially segregated affair with 1,600 mainly white guests lining up to pay homage to HIM. The Chamber of Commerce, Board of Trade, Port Authority, City of New Orleans, Green Coffee Association, International House, International Trade Mart, and Greater New Orleans Inc., acted as hosts. White dinner jackets were de rigueur for the men present. The royal guests were toasted with champagne, and the emperor received a silver bowl from shipping magnate and chairman of the Citizens’ Reception Committee, R. S. Hecht, who had visited Haile Selassie in Addis Ababa two years earlier. HIM added Mayor Morrison and Louisiana Governor Robert F. Kennon to the decorated initiates of the Order of the Star of Ethiopia. In the dining room, the emperor was presented with a handsome café brûlot set as a typical New Orleans gift, an apt present for the ruler of the country where, according to tradition, coffee originated. 64 On Friday morning, the royal party, accompanied by Morrison and Kennon, had about a 30-mile tour of the city’s chief residential sections and city park region, viewing some of the $60 million street and railroad improvement system of recent years. The tour ended at Eads Plaza (now the Spanish Plaza) at the end of Canal Street, where they boarded the yachtGood Neighbor for an inspection of the harbor and the famous Port of New Orleans as guests of the port commission. On board, they The Spring of the Lion 85 enjoyed a buffet luncheon with the city’s principal business leaders, hosted by Governor Kennon, a vigorous critic of the Brown decision, who had left legislative matters in Baton Rouge to drive to New Orleans to meet Haile Selassie. The emperor told him about Ethiopia’s regaining access to the sea only two years earlier. As the Good Neighbor passed the Algiers Naval Station, a 21-gun salute boomed forth, and the station’s personnel, dressed in white, lined the decks of four ships at the wharf. The royal party went to Loyola University, where they were welcomed by Archbishop Joseph F. Rummel to a gathering of representatives of New Orleans’ institutions of higher education. HIM exchanged gifts with representatives of the five colleges and universities in the area. Doris Anderson, the wife of a U.S. serviceman at the time, attended the gathering and remembers Haile Selassie being surrounded by African Americans who were “thrilled to see HIM.” 65 Prince Sahle and the royal princesses became real Crescent City tourists for an hour on this final day of their visit when they slipped off from the official farewells being said for a quick tour of the historic French Quarter. 66 At 4:30 in the afternoon, the royal party flew to Fort Benning, Georgia, the home of the U.S. Army Infantry Training School, where they were the dinner guests of the infantry center commander, Major Gen. Joseph H. Harper. In a morning ceremony, HIM was officially welcomed with a 21-gun salute and a parade of an honor guard of crack troops and an 80-piece army band. The emperor was briefed on school operations, “witnessed an airborne demonstration which he mentioned as being especially impressive,” and observed an infantry-tank team in an attack, a mighty display of military might. Prince Sahle and the royal princesses rode in an M-47 tank equipped with a 90-mm gun. The princesses visited a Girl Scout day camp and a Women’s Army Corps (WAC) detachment and took a buddyseat parachute jump before having lunch with fort commanders’ wives. At an official luncheon hosted by the commanding officer, the emperor bestowed Order of the Star of Ethiopia on Harper and two other officials of Fort Benning and presented an ivory trophy to the infantry school “as a symbol of the contribution of Fort Benning toward strengthening the forces for the defense of world peace through collective security within the charter of the United Nations.” Noting that there were then two Ethiopian officers enrolled in the infantry school, HIM expressed great confidence in his countrymen who trained there. In remarks at the luncheon, Haile Selassie said the following: The new arms and techniques which you are developing here, and of which you have given today such a magnificent demonstration 86 The Lion of Judah in the New World are, under an agreement concluded last year between Ethiopia and the United States, now being made available to my country. This association is a source of great pride and satisfaction to me and to my people. Moreover, our comradeship with you in arms under conditions of actual combat in Korea has already served for us, in far greater measure than for you, as another Fort Benning. Thanks to the Mutual Security Agreement, it will be possible for the Ethiopian soldier . . . to continue with you a comradeship in arms dedicated to the defense of collective security. 67 Before taking off for New York in the Star of Bombay in midafternoon, the militarily attired ruler expressed “tremendous satisfaction” with his visit to Fort Benning. The royal party touched down at La Guardia on the night of June 26 and was driven to the Waldorf Astoria, where most of them would stay until July 14, when they would begin the journey back to Ethiopia. The party arrived at the hotel at 8:00p.m . A State Department spokesman told reporters that the official phase of HIM’s and the royal party’s tour was over as of that hour and they were to be considered from then on as “private citizens.” 68 WORKING WHILE RESTING AND RELAXING AT THE WALDORF ASTORIA With the formal visit ended, the emperor could relax with his son and granddaughters and enjoy the cultural and entertainment treats that New York City offered. But first, he went to the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center for a routine checkup. He spent three days there for a general examination. 69 No news story about Haile Selassie during his stay in North America had wider coverage in the U.S. small-town press than the brief UP article about the emperor being declared to be in good health by the New York physicians upon his discharge from the hospital. The American public was concerned about the well-being of the little king whom they had come to admire. Perhaps to demonstrate that he was feeling well on the day of his release from Columbia-Presbyterian, Haile Selassie paid a surprise late afternoon visit to the Bronx Zoo. During his hour’s stay, the “usually stern-visaged little monarch who seldom is seen to laugh in public, did for once, and appeared to enjoy himself hugely.” 70 The emperor laughed heartedly when one of the attendants staged a wrestling act with Oka, the Lady Gorilla. He smiled as he petted a tiger cub and baby jaguars. HIM was, of course, no newcomer to being around big The Spring of the Lion 87 cats—even as cubs. His menagerie at Jubilee Palace always included African roaring cats. After making a complete tour of the zoo, the emperor said he especially enjoyed viewing fish in the aquarium, a 20-foot python in the reptile cage, baboons (who frequent many parts of Ethiopia), and penguins partaking of a late afternoon snack. He enjoyed everything but the weather, which he found too hot. When reporters inquired about the results of his medical checkup, the emperor said they were “very satisfactory.” While Haile Selassie was enjoying R & R in Manhattan, other members of his entourage were back in Washington, DC, attempting to make firm what each side thought had been agreed to during the meetings of the emperor with Eisenhower and other U.S. foreign policy makers. In a series of meetings at the State Department, Aklilou Habte Wold, Ethiopian Foreign Minister; Ambassador Yilma; and John Spencer presented the Ethiopian perspective to Secretary Dulles, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Byroade, and Utter, representing the U.S. Government. On July 2, the foreign minister reiterated the requests the emperor had left with the president in his departing memorandum and the assurance the president had given HIM that they would be given sympathetic consideration. The Ethiopians were disappointed with the generally negative answers they had received to the requests for economic, military, and technical aid. According to the foreign minister, upon hearing the lack of positive U.S. responses, the emperor had been so deeply depressed he had been on the verge of leaving the country immediately, without awaiting the outcome of final talks scheduled for July 7. Byroade remarked that he had been under the impression that the foreign minister understood that the talks they were engaged in should be in no way tied to the emperor’s visit to the United States. The imperial trip, Byroade continued, “had been an outstanding success, and it would be too bad to have the Emperor’s evident pleasure at the ovation he received throughout the country marred by disgruntlement at not receiving satisfaction in requests which he put forward to the U.S. Government.” Byroade concluded that he would be opposed in the future to the visit of any chief of state from the areas he was responsible for “until it was clearly understood that the visit was only for goodwill and entailed no requests for help.” The foreign minister assured the group that the emperor would not depart before hearing the outcome of the final discussion on July 7. 71 Despite that rather gloomy ending to the meeting, both sides continued to work behind the scenes in preparation for the concluding bilateral talk. 88 The Lion of Judah in the New World On the seventh, the emperor, the epitome of sangfroid, went to the Museum of Natural History with his youngest son and two granddaughters. They inspected Akeley Hall of African Mammals, where they were pleased to see an Ethiopian Mountain Nyala, the last of the great African antelopes to become known to science. In Brontosaur Hall they saw skeletal forms of ancient reptiles, and in Whitney Hall of Pacific Birds, they marveled at “brilliant feathered creatures.” The grand finale of the visit was a heavenly display staged for the special benefit of the emperor in the Hayden Planetarium. 72 On the same afternoon Haile Selassie saw the heavens open, his stars were in better alignment in Washington. In a final meeting at the State Department between the principal diplomats of the two nations, Assistant Secretary Byroade expressed his appreciation to the Ethiopian foreign minister for taking additional time to work on the problems coming out of their previous conversations. He said he hoped the foreign minister better understood “the complicated nature of the U.S. Government.” 73 Explained Byroade, “We had no doubts about the potentialities of a program of aid to the Ethiopian Government. Unfortunately, not even the President himself can act without legislative authority. What we have suggested is in the opinion of all interested American officials the best we can do.” The State Department officials noted that the United States had many commitments throughout the world, and Congress was imposing increasingly stringent conditions and procedures on foreign assistance. “When we refer to the possibility of help from lending agencies—governmental, private, international—it is simply because they are the only means for help available,” said Byroade. “We have given the best response possible, and where there is any prospect of help we are continuing to study the case.” It was not the definitive answer to his requests the emperor had wanted, but it was not a flat refusal and left the door ajar for further negotiations. Haile Selassie and his foreign minister could continue working in such a situation—especially with Kagnew Station an incentive to keep the Americans interested. The next day, the emperor went to the police—or at least the New York City Police Headquarters. Police Commissioner Francis W. H. Adams greeted HIM and escorted the monarch into a darkened room to watch the morning questioning of prisoners who stood on a lighted platform. The emperor also toured the crime-detection laboratories, the identification bureau, and a museum in the police academy. In the communications bureau, Haile Selassie communicated with a patrol car by radio. 74 This was the last highly reported activity of the monarch’s stay in the United States. The Spring of the Lion 89 During his final week in New York, Haile Selassie traveled to Jones Beach Marine Theater, where he enjoyed a performance of the musical “Arabian Nights.” Before the performance, he ate a hot dog with the show’s star, heldentenor Lauritz Melchior, and producer–orchestra leader Guy Lombardo. 75 On their last evening in the country, the emperor, Prince Sahle, and the two princesses went to Ridgefield, Connecticut, to dine with Richard E. Southard, former minister to Ethiopia. 76 On July 12, Haile Selassie left by air from Idlewild with planned stops in Yugoslavia, France, and Greece before returning to Ethiopia. The emperor said he found the United States even greater than he had expected. He thanked President Eisenhower and the people of America for a memorable visit and said he was leaving with regret and would return if he possibly could do so. The monarch showed “ intense feeling” while speaking through an interpreter. Seeing HIM off were General C. L. Bolte, deputy chief of staff of the Army, representing Eisenhower, Simmons, Patterson, and Warren Lee Pierson, Chairman of the Board of TWA. 77 On the following day, the New York Times ran an eloquent farewell editorial, “Lion of Judah”: It is commonly believed that we Americans are deeply impressed by titles. Perhaps we are, but when it comes to choosing our friends we look behind the title to the man. In the case of the Emperor Haile Selassie . . . we would respect the man even without the title. It is correct to call Haile Selassie His Imperial Majesty, but if he were plain Mr., he would still be a man of courage, intelligence and great humanity. . . . Good wishes will follow the Emperor as he wings his way home after traveling over our country from coast to coast, and these good wishes will extend to his countrymen. 78 The impact on Americans in meeting the emperor was eloquently described by Rabbi Harry J. Stern, who dined with HIM in Canada: “His presence in our midst evokes memories of historic pasts and breathes prayers within us all that peace prevail on earth and that nations great and small shall prosper and dwell in justice and brotherhood under the rule of the Supreme Father of all mankind.” The Rabbi’s brief interlude with Haile Selassie called to his mind the Song of David from the Psalms, “How good and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity.” He concluded that “soon [in 1955] the Emperor will observe the 25th anniversary of his Coronation and all lovers of freedom will rejoice in the growth and advance of Ethiopia among the nations of the world.” 7990 The Lion of Judah in the New World His countrymen gave their little king a regal ovation when his plane arrived in Addis Ababa. Scores of thousands of Ethiopians jammed the streets to cheer and ululate as the emperor passed by in his open Rolls Royce. The monarch had scored a resounding public-relations triumph at home and abroad. As far as the Ethiopian people knew, HIM’s personal diplomacy had cemented an arms-for-base-rights agreement, with Ethiopia receiving weapons and a military training mission as well as economic aid and political support for union with Eritrea. Haile Selassie in his first public address after his return from the U.S. tour said that his reception in America “fully justified all my preconceptions of American friendship and hospitality.” 80 For its part, the United States had solidified its claim to Kagnew Station and access to a strategic locale on the rim of the Middle East. In the years following the emperor’s first call on North America, state visits became “an almost annual compulsion” for Haile Selassie. He seemed to enjoy his status as a celebrity and cultivated a strong international image through state visits to many parts of the world. HIM thrived upon international travel and the social activities that accompanied it. Being treated as a head of state, with all the indulgences and condescension that it entailed was an exhilarating experience. His international fame and acceptance grew. In October 1954 he toured Western Europe. In Great Britain, the emperor received the royal treatment he craved. He wore a cocked hat topped by a lion’s mane and rode in an open state landau with a household cavalry escort through London’s flag-bedecked streets and the mall decorated with tall ceremonial poles bearing replicas of the crown of Ethiopia. He was the first head of state to visit West Germany after the end of World War II. The emperor’s visit signaled the acceptance of West Germany back into the world, as a peaceful nation. He donated blankets manufactured in Ethiopia to the war-ravaged German people. 81 His subsequent state visits and official travel also would take HIM to South America and Asia. ENTR’ACTE The fruits of the emperor’s personal diplomacy with Eisenhower were harvested soon after their meeting in Washington. In FY 1956, the United States committed to $5 million for the Ethiopian Army, a naval patrol craft, and economic assistance amounting to under $5 million for “soundly conceived projects mutually agreed upon.” U.S. aid was tendered with a wary eye on possible security threats to Ethiopia: progressive young army officers along with young intellectuals The Spring of the Lion 91 and middle- and upper-class civil servants were dissatisfied with their place in society and were not optimistic about their future under the rule of HIM. But the IEG was in firm control of internal security. The Ethiopian government was dissatisfied, however, with the amount of U.S. aid and shifted toward a neutralist policy and the consideration of Soviet Bloc offers of economic aid. Indeed, in 1956, Soviet Bloc activity increased in the country. 82 At the same time, the U.S. Point Four program proved to be a strong tool for the emperor in developing provincial areas and knitting the people more closely to the central government. Haile Selassie took a personal interest in the programs and insisted upon the location of the new agricultural college in Alemaya; an agricultural secondary school in Jimma; a hospital and health center at Mekele; a health training center at Gondar; a nursing and vocational school at Asmara; teacher training schools at Harar, Debra Berhan, and Addis Ababa; and waterwell drilling in Eritrea and the southeast and southern border areas. At a National Security Council (NSC) meeting in November 1956, Eisenhower told Herbert Hoover Jr., acting secretary of state, “You have your ‘best drag’ in [Ethiopia] when you do something for the Emperor.” The president cited Haile Selassie’s being sold a Lockheed Constellation so he could overfly neighboring countries. Unfortunately, the plane crashed and burned two weeks after its delivery. Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson expressed skepticism about the United States taking on further obligations in Africa because he feared a power vacuum when the colonial powers left. The consensus of the meeting was that Africa could suddenly become very important to the United States. 83 In 1957, the emperor made a strong plea for substantially larger military assistance and requested aid to develop the IEG’s air force— importunities given some effect by world politics. The Eisenhower Doctrine had been ratified that year, making it clear that the United States reserved the right to intervene in the oil-rich Middle East if it perceived its vital interests were threatened. Radical Arab nationalist opposition to the West, especially in Egypt, had sharpened in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis in 1956, and this resulted in accelerated delivery of U.S. equipment and training under a Military Assistance Program (MAP) to Ethiopia. After the British departure from Ethiopia in 1951, the IEG Army had seriously deteriorated. The MAP improved the army’s potential and equipped units with U.S. weapons. Vice President Nixon visited Haile Selassie in March 1957. The emperor complained that Middle Eastern friends were criticizing the IEG 92 The Lion of Judah in the New World for supporting the United States in Korea and refusing to recognize the People’s Republic of China. Further, the IEG had supported the U.S. position during the Suez crisis and had voted for the UN resolution about Hungary. He pointed out that U.S. privileges in Ethiopia were granted for an extremely long period, but American military assistance was maintained on a purely year-to-year basis. Nixon replied that this discrepancy resulted from the U.S. executive branch being dependent on annual appropriations from congress. The vice president assured HIM that a close collaboration with the United States “was entirely possible on the basis of a fresh and frank approach to the problems.” In response, the emperor gave Nixon a shopping list of military and security items (a radio station “to offset radio Cairo and other insidious propaganda,” helicopters, and police equipment), most of which the United States delivered to HIM within a few months. 84 The pièce de résistance came in June 1958, however, when U.S. funds for twelve F-86 jet fighters were approved. Eisenhower’s decision to provide a modern weapon system that few other third world countries possessed reinforced Haile Selassie’s belief that the key to enhancing Ethiopia’s security as well as his own resided with the United States. 85 Nevertheless, Haile Selassie contended that U.S. military assistance was delivered too slowly and was not of the quality deemed appropriate, and in July 1959 he visited Moscow (being the first African head of state to visit the motherland of actual, existing socialism) and Prague. Lost in the razzmatazz of diplomatic duplicity and protocols of the Kremlin elders was Pravda’s harsh characterization of HIM not as the Lion of Judah but as the jackal of American imperialism. The unruffled IEG accepted Soviet Bloc aid of $100 million from the USSR (an amount far higher than what the United States had provided Ethiopia since the end of World War II) and $10 million from Czechoslovakia in longterm credits and embarked on a more neutralist foreign policy. 86 The CIA worried that these moves “might be the first major attempt by the Communist Bloc to penetrate into deeper parts of Africa.” It was possible too that Haile Selassie “in his quiet way was attempting to blackmail the United States.” There were even unconfirmed reports that the emperor had ordered the abrogation of the agreement that established Kagnew Station. “This, if true, could be extremely serious.” 87 In 1960, the emperor began what was already being called the Decade of Africa, confident that the United States would provide him with more and better military assistance or he would allow his new friends, the Soviets, to become more involved in key areas of his nation’s life such as the armed forces, communications, education, and The Spring of the Lion 93 land resettlement—a move anathema to the Cold War–obsessed West. Although the United States had thwarted, for the most part, Soviet efforts to break into America’s dominant role in the country, the USSR had recently opened and staffed a technical school in Bahar Dar. The former minister of foreign affairs, and now prime minister, Aklilou, requested U.S. financial assistance for a university (Ethiopia had only University College and the Imperial Agricultural College at that time) and arms and material for a fourth division of the Ethiopian Army. Eisenhower was enthusiastic about the university idea because he felt strongly that Africa should develop its own leaders at home. The president said he was less inclined to favor a buildup of armaments. Eisenhower thought the United States itself had too many, although he could not prove that thesis to his soldiers. 88 Early in his presidency, Eisenhower had talked about his preference for aid over arms. He told his son, John S. D. Eisenhower, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. . . . We pay for a single fighter plane with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed 8,000 people.” 89 Is it little wonder that Eisenhower gave a farewell presidential address warning of “a military-industrial complex” thriving on war and threat of war? 90 Eisenhower also made a memorable speech at the opening session of the 15th UN General Assembly on September 22, 1960, speaking to “the largest international galaxy of leaders ever assembled.” The president appealed to all nations to “work for a true world community” and to join in settling the world’s problems by negotiation and cooperation in the United Nations. He emphasized the need for new programs in Africa and expressed the hope that the Cold War might be kept out of that continent. Eisenhower envisioned a “consortium of African nations” to develop a sense of solidarity and prevent their domination by the big powers. 91 Unfortunately, the president’s eloquent tribute to the UN did not receive the attention it deserved because the media focused on subsequent controversial speeches and actions by the grandstanding Khrushchev and Castro, among others. Nevertheless, Eisenhower had delivered a gracious and profound valedictory about Africa and the UN and had suggested that the UN be the principal instrument of U.S. policy in Africa. While world attention was focused on the Congo, a new external threat haunted the emperor. Tensions along Ethiopia’s eastern border were building with a growing fear of Somali nationalism. The former 94 The Lion of Judah in the New World Italian and British colonies became independent on July 1. Haile Selassie, who was 68-years-old then, had an obsession with security and had not developed a fully satisfactory arrangement for dynastic succession. The monarch continued to hold the threat of Kagnew Station’s being in jeopardy if a substantial increase in U.S. grants for military assistance were not forthcoming. In the United States a presidential election in November would select a new chief executive. Would the new man continue the friendly relations with the increasingly cantankerous emperor? Was the era of good feeling between Ethiopia and the United States coming to an end?


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CHAPTER 8 The Rituals of U.S. and Ethiopian Diplomacy

President Dwight Eisenhower was presiding at the regular Thursday meeting of the NSC on February 26, 1959 in the Cabinet Room of the White House. On the agenda was discussion of U.S. policy toward the Horn of Africa, and Gordon Gray, special assistant to the president for national security affairs, had prepared a memorandum for the meeting that focused on the upcoming independence of French, British, and Italian colonies in Somaliland and Ethiopia’s reactions to it. After Gray briefed the council on his memo, Secretary of State Christian Herter spoke first: I have only one comment to make about U.S. policy toward the Horn. We are in real trouble with the Lion of Judah. The British propose joining British Somaliland with Somalia when the former Italian colony becomes an independent state in December 1960. We have supported the U.K. proposal, and Haile Selassie dislikes both the British idea and our support of it. We’re trying to cool him down and dispel the notion that we’re ganging up against him with the former colonial powers. 1 The president responded: “If the French still have the strength to hold on to French Somaliland with the important port of Djibouti, I don’t think it would be wise on our part to ask them to give up their colony there. That area could be very advantageous to us from a geopolitical point of 96 The Lion of Judah in the New World view as a means of blocking Soviet access. I would hate to see the Red Sea bottled up on both ends by people who might not necessarily be or remain our friends.” Herter agreed with the president that the United States did indeed have a strong geopolitical interest in the Horn. Secretary of the Treasury Robert B. Anderson said the council would have to face up to a major national security issue that was suggested in the memorandum: We are heading rapidly into a situation where a lot of little, newly independent countries are coming into being, and they will inevitably turn to the United States for support. All these little countries want to act like great big countries. This will mean increased demands on our resources for assistance. I’m afraid that sooner or later the bulk of financial support for Somaliland or similar newly developing countries will be expected to come from us. I doubt we can persist much longer in letting the entire world believe that we can and will support all these newly independent countries. 2 The president said he had never been in the area of the Somalilands and wondered what it was like: “Did Somalia consist of wild jungle?” Allen Dulles, director of the CIA and brother of former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, described Somaliland as mainly “dry and desert, and some of it is high in elevation.” The president asked, “Are the Somalis primitive and aborigines?” Dulles replied, “A majority of them certainly fell into that category.” Maurice Stans, director of the Bureau of the Budget, had traveled to Kenya and had “encountered Somali natives who were probably much the same as their brethren in the actual Somalia areas. They were certainly primitive. On the other hand, Somali women were said to be the most beautiful in Africa.” The president, who had served in Panama, the Philippines, and North Africa and had worked with what he called “primitive peoples” wondered how Somali natives thought they could run an independent nation and why they would try to do so. Dulles confirmed the president’s doubts as to the capabilities of the Somalis to organize and administer a modern, civilized state. Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, chief of naval operations, spoke in favor of a sustained effort “to bring to the United States young Somali natives who had displayed a potentiality for leadership in the area.” He said, “Such young leaders should be trained very carefully and at some length in the United States. This is perhaps the most important single thing the United States can do to advance its interests in The Rituals of U.S. and Ethiopian Diplomacy 97 the Horn of Africa.” Herter commented that Burke’s suggestion could apply equally well to other sections of the African continent, an idea the president liked too. 3 * * * By 1959, the NSC system had evolved into the principal arm of the president in formulating and executing policy on military, international, and internal security affairs. The National Security Council had been created by Congress during the Truman administration in 1947, but the president only made regular use of it during the Korean War. Under Eisenhower, the NSC became a highly structured system of integrated policy review. Coming from a military career, Eisenhower appreciated careful staff work and believed that effective planning involved a creative process of discussion and debate among advisers who were compelled to work toward consensus recommendations. Eisenhower played a dominant role in foreign policy and national security issues, and the NSC system was a significant factor in his decisions. The NSC session on the Horn of Africa was indicative of the broad sweep of such discussions. The members were concerned about U.S. policy towards Ethiopia, the end of colonialism and the creation of new nations of Africa, soviet expansionism in the Horn (with the threat of having the radical nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt at one end of the Red Sea and the soviets on the other), the increasing pressure for America to provide aid to new developing nations, and the encouraging of bright young Africans to study in the United States. The NSC members did not evince much knowledge about the Horn or its peoples, although Stans’ comment about the pulchritude of Somali women might be profound. By 21st-century standards, the vocabulary of the principals was not politically correct—perhaps indicative of how little was generally known about Africa at that time. For Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers, U.S. foreign policy was the sum of external relations conducted by the United States in international relations. Deliberations of the NSC were strands of an elaborate tapestry of institutions and processes that made public policy. In the Cold War years, the question of how the United States related to the world beyond its borders—and how it should—became inescapable. The Eisenhower administration inherited President Truman’s containment theory to stop the international spread of communism and soviet expansionism. That strategy, started as the Truman Doctrine in 1947, shaped U.S. foreign policy in the 1950s and early 1960s. The 98 The Lion of Judah in the New World Korean conflict that had demonstrated that the USSR might use proxy forces for probes on the Eurasian periphery led to the geographical extension of containment from Europe to Asia and beyond and resulted in the modernization and expansion of U.S. military capabilities. In Africa and Asia, nationalist movements challenged colonial governments. U.S. officials suspected that communists dominated these movements and received support directly from the Soviet Union. The United States poured military resources into Europe and the Far East and set about creating a global alliance system to complement the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that had been founded in 1949, the first peacetime alliance entered into by the United States. The Eisenhower administration sought to run the global containment strategy at a lower economic cost. This led to a renewed emphasis on U.S. nuclear deterrent and increased reliance on allies to provide conventional forces for local defense. In a January 1954 speech, Secretary Dulles advocated the threatened use of the “massive retaliatory power” of the United States to deter soviet expansionism. The first priority for U.S. military commitments was for Europe and the so-called rimland areas of the Eurasian land mass that were under threat of attack by the USSR or its surrogates. In other parts of world, U.S. policy emphasized economic and technological development components of Point Four. General Andrew J. Goodpaster, staff secretary to the president, summarized Eisenhower’s approach to development in third world nations. Freedom of choice and self-determination were central to the plan, which included explaining to aid recipients “what the West had to offer and what has been achieved by Western civilization.” 4 At the same time they were to be provided “the assistance needed so they could begin to better the life of their farmers and improve their industry and trade.” The president thought this would give them “a more reliable and more rewarding basis for development than the so-called shortcut of communism,” to which Dennis FitzGerald, an overseas agricultural official during the Eisenhower administration, added, “But mostly technical assistance required the furnishing of American technicians to work in a foreign country, under foreign conditions, and with local people”; that is, “the ugly American” hero-protagonist of the 1958 novel of Burdick and Lederer. 5 The fear of overextension in addition to the belief that there were primary areas where the Cold War would be fought relegated subSaharan Africa to the periphery of U.S. foreign policy concerns. During the reign of Haile Selassie, Ethiopia was not directly threatened by the The Rituals of U.S. and Ethiopian Diplomacy 99 USSR and was marginal to American global policy. The strategic significance of Kagnew Station, however, put Ethiopia at the top of U.S. interests in Africa. Also, the maintenance of an American presence in the Horn of Africa would provide stability for U.S. allies in the Middle East and security for oil exports from key Arab countries. The main foreign policy concerns of Ethiopia were national security and the strengthening of the regime through U.S. military and economic assistance. The United States and Ethiopia shared common interests in sustaining stability in the Horn, preserving Ethiopian sovereignty and the sanctity of its borders, supporting the UN and collective security, providing Ethiopian hegemony over Eritrea and hence assuring a U.S.-friendly landlord for Kagnew Station, and blocking communist activities. The making of Ethiopian foreign policy was from the top down by the emperor and his foreign ministry. An organization chart of the process would be simple: a giant arrow going down from the top box representing the monarch to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its agents in the field, the ambassadors in various countries. Could absolute rule in a feudal society be otherwise? In American democracy, power to make foreign policy was widely shared. Under the separation of powers doctrine in the U.S. Constitution, the conduct of foreign relations is entrusted primarily to the president and Congress, although the judiciary may act as a check on the powers of the other two branches. An organization chart demonstrating the process would consist of a proliferation of boxes that would spread from all three branches of government in a policy-hill process. Although the buck stops at the top of the hill with the president, who is ultimately responsible for conducting foreign policy, participants are many and varied in the process. Commands issue from the State Department and the Pentagon. From these vast control centers, power is dispersed to representatives down the hill or on the ground— diplomats and warriors who work at home and in foreign lands to carry out the policy guidance that has laboriously been produced along the hillside. Key players include the White House staff, the secretary of state and the bureaucracy of the State Department, U.S. ambassadors to particular countries and their staffs, and military and intelligence officers in Washington and in the field. Foreign policy for a specific country takes place in a context of America’s worldwide objectives as well as those for a continent or region. Each of Haile Selassie’s state visits to the United States was illustrative of U.S. foreign policy specifically toward Ethiopia but also toward 100 The Lion of Judah in the New World Africa in general. The Emperor’s one-on-one meetings with the president and his interaction with Washington officials were parts of a complex web of diplomacy that existed between the two nations. Diplomacy is a system of communication in elaborate Byzantine rituals between states, an institution by which nation-states pursue their own particular interests or foreign policy. State visits are the highest form of diplomatic contact between two nations, and are marked by ceremonial pomp and diplomatic protocol. Haile Selassie’s state visits included all the traditional components: a welcoming ceremony with a review of military honor guards, parades, and the playing of the two nations’ national anthems by a military band; a 21-gun salute; an exchange of gifts between the emperor and the president; a state dinner hosted by the president in honor of HIM; a formal address to Congress by the emperor; high-profile visits by Haile Selassie to national monuments such as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; and cultural events such as the display of Ethiopian books at the Library of Congress, celebrating links between the two nations. The emperor was accompanied by his foreign minister and a delegation of high-ranking officials who had an opportunity to develop economic, cultural, and social contacts with governmental and industry leaders, as well as Americans from a variety of walks of life. Throughout the emperor’s visits, the state department’s chief of protocol was on hand to ensure that the accepted rules of diplomacy were implemented. During the first visit, Ambassador John K. Simmons, in this role, carried out his duty to “plan and execute detailed programs for foreign leaders visiting the president and accompany them during their official travel in the United States.” The costs of Haile Selassie’s state visits were paid by the U.S. Treasury. After spending his first night in Washington at the White House, Haile Selassie subsequently stayed across the street at Blair House, the resident’s guest house usually reserved for foreign visitors, during his visits to the capital. Haile Selassie was confident that he would be in a better bargaining position in garnering rent for Kagnew if he could meet with President Eisenhower and personally discuss their mutual interests. Subsequent developments and the mechanics of carrying out decisions in a democracy would produce outcomes different from what the emperor thought had been agreed to. The exchange between Eisenhower and the emperor illustrated two significant factors in an autocracy’s dealing with a parliamentary democracy. First, internal, economic, social, and political plans and policies can rival foreign and defense policies as claimants on limited resources. Eisenhower was limited in what The Rituals of U.S. and Ethiopian Diplomacy 101 he could do unilaterally about foreign aid by congressional control of spending, public opinion and its reflection in domestic politics, and his own predilections about striving for a balanced budget. Secondly, foreign policy decisions can be shaped by the contests for influence among groups and individuals. In the context of the vast array of U.S. global commitments, groups competing for limited resources to assist Ethiopia included various offices in the State Department, the Point Four Program, and the Department of Defense. Haile Selassie seemed flummoxed to encounter these restraints during his first visit to the United States. In the 20th century, the foreign policies of both the United States and Ethiopia were influenced by two competing theories: realism and liberalism. Each nation played the realism or liberalism card whenever doing so advanced its power and security. Rare is the nation that would play one card exclusively. Realism has been the dominant tradition in thinking about international politics. For Realists, order is created and maintained by states exercising power in interaction with other states. War and the use of force are the central problem of international politics. Strong states seek to dominate the weak and weak states resist the strong to preserve their interests and independence. There is no overarching institution or universal center of power in the world that is recognized by all states as legitimate. This anarchy in the world order requires states to defend themselves because they cannot rely on anyone else to do so (e.g., what was required of Ethiopia after its disappointing appeal to the League of Nations for collective security to protect it from fascist invasion). In defending themselves, states may come into conflict with one another. They try to manage this conflict through the reciprocal acquisition and use of military arms, or what is called the balance of power. During the Cold War, the United States and its allies were defending themselves from the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc nations. Relations between Ethiopia and the United States reflected the ongoing process of balancing and adjusting of opposing power among the states on the two sides. So long as Ethiopia remained an ally of the United States and was felt to be useful to the super power, it received military aid and backing from the West. Should Ethiopia be deemed no longer useful to the strong nation, from a realist point of view, it would be in the interest of the United States to cease assisting it. Conversely, if Ethiopia felt that U.S. support was not what it should be, it could threaten to end its ties with America and become a friend of the Eastern Bloc, or it could curse both the houses and pursue an unaligned policy of neutrality. 102 The Lion of Judah in the New World In contrast to realism, liberal theories postulate a global society functioning alongside the states and setting part of the context for states. Liberal theories emphasize relationships and negotiations among nonstate actors in international affairs. For example, trade crosses borders, people have contacts with each other, and international institutions such as the UN create a framework in which the realist view of pure anarchy is insufficient. Liberals advocate the growth of economic interdependence and the evolution of a transnational global society to establish rules to govern interactions among actors. Ethiopia and the United States were active in the founding and development of the UN and took part in its peace keeping activities. Both nations fostered reciprocal trade (e.g., coffee going to America and Coca-Cola to Ethiopia) and welcomed a flow of academics (e.g., Oklahoma A&M professors in Point Four; Fulbright students at U.S. universities) military (e.g., U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group trainers; Ethiopian Army personnel at U.S. bases), and other personnel between them (e.g., TWA). Hard and soft power also came into play in U.S. relations with Ethiopia. In its official external relations, the U.S. government attempts to influence other states by the direct or commanding method of exercising power. In getting other states to (1) do what they otherwise would not do or (2) not do what they would prefer to do (power relationships), traditional diplomacy can be based on inducements (“carrots”) or threats (“sticks”). 6 The president and Congress with their emphasis on treaties and geopolitical debates, exercise “hard” power. The military treaties and base agreements were classic examples of hard power in Ethiopia. But there is another way to exercise power and to obtain desired outcomes through attraction rather than through coercion or payment. A country may achieve desired outcomes in its foreign relations because other countries admire what it stands for and want to follow its example or have agreed to a system that produces such effects. “In this sense, it is just as important to set the agenda and attract others in world politics as it is to force others to change in particular situations.” 7 Getting others to want what you want might be called attractive or indirect power behavior, or what Joseph Nye calls “soft” power. 8 Soft power matters because countries that like you will want to be your allies. Soft power can rest on such resources as “the attraction of one’s ideas or on the ability to set the political agenda in a way that shapes the preferences others express.” Preferences can be influenced by such intangible power resources such as culture, ideology, and institutions. The Rituals of U.S. and Ethiopian Diplomacy 103 One of America’s greatest strengths during the Cold War was in leading the community of democracies and the nonaligned nations by example.9 This was done through public diplomacy, interactions other than those between national governments. Effective public diplomacy involved dialogue; a two-way exchange of information and peopleto-people contact were a significant aspect of that effort. U.S. public diplomacy emphasized the nation’s core values and subtly built an image of a benevolent global leader. In the 1950s, Chief Justice Earl Warren and other justices of the U.S. Supreme Court took up the challenge of exercising soft power through public diplomacy—especially that involving visiting foreign heads of state in the United States. From all accounts, the court’s move into this previously unchartered area for the judiciary was a resounding success.10 Any occasion honoring a visiting leader in such surroundings is bound to be a memorable event, even as only one aspect of a state visit. And the justices were among the most intelligent, knowledgeable Americans who, in their work, frequently interpreted the core values of the nation and who could well represent the nation in dialogue with foreign leaders. The visiting dignitaries had an opportunity to interact with the justices in an institution that was admired abroad for its independence from other branches of government and for its protection of human rights. The court’s decisions ending racial segregation in public schools were especially lauded by the official visitors. Many were learned in the law and had an affinity for fellow professionals on the bench. The Supreme Court offered attractive ideas for emulation and thus was an ideal place to practice soft power. During a time of tense Cold War confrontations, the supreme court contributed to public diplomacy that successfully followed the sage advice of George Kennan in his “X” article, which appeared in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs : “To avoid destruction, the United States need only measure up to its own best traditions and prove itself worthy of preservation as a great nation.” 11 As an individual, Haile Selassie was the practitioner of public diplomacy par excellence. He was canny and insightful in making public relations triumphs of his trips overseas or in his receiving foreign guests in Addis Ababa. “He radiated majesty from a light frame.” 12 Unfailingly soigné, the Emperor’s commanding presence combined with graciousness at public occasions made HIM an ideal ambassador of good will at home and abroad. He had the ability to understand and influence foreign populations—not only in their councils of state but in their cities and villages, as was seen in his reception when he had the 104 The Lion of Judah in the New World opportunity to be with the common people. He magisterially presided over events throughout the country, for however crowded and official the scene, Haile Selassie was always in the picture, and more often than not in its center, all ribbons and propriety. He stood untouched and seldom spoke or smiled. He was emblematic of the era of monarchy that was drawing to a close. The emperor acquired in the eyes of many foreigners what the Romans called “gravitas”—patience, stability, the appearance of wisdom. Trouble only made him look a little graver. Such characteristics made Haile Selassie an appropriately venerated figure as an elder statesman of Africa. He also should be recognized for the significant role he played as one of the world’s greatest practitioners of informal diplomacy.


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