"The war is over": Castro declares victory in Ogaden as Carter begins Somalia outreach
Murrey Marder, Washington Post reporter, wrote about Jimmy Carter's outreach to Somalia after it suffered military defeat to Ethiopia in the Ogaden war
That US presidents wield Jupiterian powers which determine the fate of many countries – far and near – is cliché which doesn’t need much elaboration here. In the case of Somalia, George W. Bush – whose ‘War on Terror’ contributed significantly to Somalia’s current inferno – stands out alongside Jimmy Carter, whose foreign policy choices decisively influenced the course of Somalia’s second post-independence decade.
How we interpret those foreign policy decisions ultimately depends on who you ask. I haven’t yet interviewed enough Somalis to get an empirically substantive gauge on how they feel about Jimmy Carter whose remembered quite well in the US. I hope to. But its difficult to get a grip on the country’s history without understanding the context in which Carter inherited the thorny Horn of Africa question or the ambivalent nature of his attempt address it.
Carter was keen to lure Somalia out of the Soviet orbit but placed conditions on Mogadishu which he must have known would be difficult, if not impossible, for Siad Barre to meet. Somalia had committed to invading Ethiopia and Barre had personally invested a great deal of political capital in annexing the Ogaden, come hell or high water. He also refused to arm Somalia and blocked third countries (mainly Middle East allies of the US) from doing so. On the other hand, he devoted significant energy to understanding what was happening in the Horn of Africa and according to Time magazine instructed Secretary of state Cyrus R. Vance and National security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski “to move in every possible way to get Somalia to be our friend.” I have a post here about a meeting between US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and Hussein Abdulkadir Kassim, Somalia’s minerals and water resources minister:
In March 1978, Carter had a difficult choice to make. Somalia had expelled the Soviet Union and was in a delicate state of Cold War limbo. Neither here nor there in a global conflict which divided the world. It had also been militarily defeated. How keen was Carter to make Somalia a Cold War ally of the US? Would that mean supporting a country which Washington believed had illegally invaded its neighbour? How would that impact the US’s standing elsewhere? How far would Carter go heal Somalia’s bruised national pride? These were probably some of the questions that were swirling in the minds of Carter and his foreign policy mandarins.
Murrey Marder picked up the story of how Carter dealt with the problem for the The Washington Post in March 1978. A New York Times obituary for Marder described him as an “ace” reporter, who in his four decade career at the Post “embodied the role of public watchdog, becoming an emblem of meticulous, thorough news gathering when his persistence in laying bare the lies and exaggerations of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade helped bring McCarthy to ruin.” His article was published at a crucial time and though it isn’t written with the panache of Oberdorfer, it still gives you the nuts and bolts of the story.
He put pen to paper on Carter’s outreach to Somalia in a story which can be found here. He wrote his article as it became clear that Somalia wouldn’t be able to stem the tide of a Cuban-Soviet supported Ethiopian counter-offensive which would eventually push Somali regulars out of the Ogaden.
Carter Sends Special Mission on Somalia Alignment Issue
By Murrey Marder, March 17, 1978
President Carter sent a special mission to Somalia yesterday in what now appears to be a new
East-West contest for that nation's alignment after its defeat by Soviet-and Cuban-reinforced Ethiopian troops in the Ogaden region.
The Soviet Union at the same time is reported to have stiffened its attitude about using its influence to reduce Cuban troops in Ethiopia following Somalia's troop withdrawal from the Ogaden.
In addition, it was reported yesterday that Cuban troops in Ethiopia now have become involved in Ethiopia's other war, against secessionists in the northern province of Eritrea. There was no immediate confirmation here of this latest report in the whirl of developments in the Horn of Africa which affect overall U.S.-Soviet relations.
Cuban President Fidel Castro, in a speech in Havana Wednesday night, made no reference to any possible use of Cuban troops in the Eritrean conflict. But
Castro said nothing about when the Cuban forces might be withdrawn after participating in "the great victory of the Ethiopian revolution on the eastern front."
Castro, referring to the Ogaden conflict, said,
"The war is over." But he held out hope that in Somalia the "progressive, leftist" faction now may swing Somalia back to its previous alignment with the Soviet Union and Cuba. Somalia last November expelled thousands of Soviet military advisers and Cubans as it pursued its war against Ethiopia to "liberate" Somali ethnic people in the Ogaden.
It was Somalia's "rightist faction which imposed its aggressive and adventuresome line upon the Somali government," and "suffered a great defeat," said Castro, referring to the government of President Mohammed Siad Barre.
"What will happen in Somali?" Castro asked rhetorically, adding, "It cannot be predicted . . . Let us wait for the coming weeks to see what happens."
A senior State Department official told reporters last Friday that the Soviet Union had "indicated" that Cuban troops would be significantly reduced as Somalia pulled its troops out of the Ogaden. Some news accounts overstated the information conveyed to reporters, describing it as a Soviet assurance.
Next day, at a meeting between Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance and Soviet Ambassador Anatolly F. Dobrynn, according to administration sources, Dobrynin backed away from the earlier expectations he had aroused about Cuban withdrawals. Dobrynin reportedly left the issue dangling in ambiguity.
State Department spokesman Hoding Carter said yesterday that the Cuban military presence in Ethiopia "is not less and is probably somewhat greater" than it was last week. At that time, U.S. officials said there were 12,000 Cubans in Ethiopia, and some more en route there, plus about 1,000 Soviet military advisers.
Yesterday, Vance and Dobrynin met at lunch, before Dobrynin's return to Moscow for consultations.
Officials said afterward only that Vance and Dobrynin "reviewed U.S.-Soviet relations." Those relations however, now are in an exceptionally fluid stage over a wide spread of issues ranging from the Horn of Africa, to nuclear arms control negotiations in Geneva, to human rights in the Soviet Union.
The dispatch of a diplomatic mission to Somalia is intended to explore, a spokesman said, "a whole range of U.S.-Somali arrangements," inlcuding the supply of American "defensive" military equipment. This mission is headed by Richard M. Moose, assistant secretary of state for African affairs.
President Carter has said that the United States hopes to improve its ties with Somalia, and also with Ethiopia, in the aftermath of their war in the Ogaden. The withdrawal of Somali troops from the Ogaden, a State Department spokesman reemphasized yesterday, should remove "the justification" that the Soviet Union and Cuba "claim for themselves" in sending Cuban troops, and Soviet advisers, to Ethiopia.
One of the many questions dangling over the Cuban military presence in Ethiopia has been whether, once there, they will be used in the prolonged "liberation war" for control of the province of Eritrea. Cuban military advisers previously have been reported in that conflict.
Cuban military units now have joined the Eritrean war, Reuter news agency reported yesterday from Nairobi, Kenya.
According to that report, diplomatic sources in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, said that after participating in the Ethiopian victory over Somalia in the Ogaden, Cuban troops arrived in the Eritrean provincial capital of Asmara. The Cubans reportedly have been making probing attacks to test the strength of insurgent forces encircling the city. No figures were cited on numbers of Cubans.
Three weeks ago, Reuter said, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front announced that 2,000 Cubans had flown to Asmara from Angola, the original site of Cuban military involvement in Africa. Sources in Addis Ababa at that time said they considered the 2,000 figure too high.
American sources has no immediate comment yesterday on the reported presence of Cuban troops in Eritrea.