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ElhiOPia
Excnanues
Tvrannies
A Revolution
Goes
Haywire
Tbe btzarre evcots in Ethiopia
dunna the
past
year c:oo¡ure up
cene
VtStODS
of thc terrors or Lhc
famou.s revolutioru: of h•story. AJ–
ready the
Wa/1 Streer
Journul
has
called the Ethiopian scene ... c:on–
densed re-run of t.he Frcnch
Rcv~
lution.•• The turmoi1 also has
its
parallel
10
tl\e
China
or
the middle
1960's. Tbe pu:•ureof«nsofthou·
s.a.ods or Et.hiopian Studcnt.S de.m–
onstraung in
favor of.socJthsm
and
the plan to oonscript. 25.000 hi&h
school
studeJ\lS and
coltegians
co
lhe rural countryside to se1 up c:ol–
lective
rarms mirrors
the
ldeologi–
e:al fervor of Mao• s Grea1
Prolct&rian Cuhu.ral Rcvoluuon.
In Febnoary 1973,
a
revolt by
Elhiop1ans
over
pay
and living
con~
dilioos
$Cl
the
politic.al
dominos
falling. the last domino, Empcror
HaiJe Selassie, was ous.re:d from
his
*'hfeume..
office
in September.
Sull. tbc
JlpAW
puule pocture ora
ft:\•oluuon sone haywue dld not
raU
1010
place
until
tbe molitary
govemment startled the world wtlh
the
announcement
that
sixty mem·
bcrs
or
thc "old regime" had been
executed ovemigbt
Among
the
e_x;.
ecuted wu Oene:ral Aman
Ado~
who had been the SliOnsm•• or the
ruhng provisionol military advisory
counci1.
Like Robespierre io
France in
J
794. the ''Revolution"
bad tumed on
its
own.
Otber unrortunate
vicdms of the
new
leade~bip
were former Em–
peror Haile Selassie·s yandson and
two
former
prime
minaten.
Economocally, the mohwy gov·
emors
have shown
the•r
Ma.oisr
colors by reocntly nationalizing all
bank$, mortgage corporations, and
ínsurance eompanies, a prelude to
more
exteosive takeovcrs
or
private
indusuy later.
Thc
govemmenr
Ju.s
abo
issued
deaees 1mposans
state
contrOl over virtuaUy alltheland in
Etbiopía, ending tbe hopt of many
ofevcr owning thcir own
propcrty.
At
fil'$1
it appeared that thé rul–
ing
junta would conünue Halle Se–
la.ss•c"s
basically
pro·Americao
rore•&• outlook.
Thís
now appears
10
have
been
a
false
hopt
A
more
aocurate prognosis is
tbat Ethiopia
wj(l bkely falito tbat stnng of cast
Afñcan statcs with
close
links to
Peking.
Oe<lpolitieally.
Ibis
could
give tbe United States a strategic
headaehe witb lhe Red Sea ship–
pm¡ lai\CS c:oming
under more di·
rect
Communist
supervuJOR
Wllh a natiooal backdrop
or
drought and Camine plus the fcster·
ing guerrilla
war
in
the
province or
Eritrea, Ethiopia'$
new
I'Uien
may
fi.nd good ....... lo rru:u thcir
marual law mentality ptrmanently
tnto tht muntry's go•emmental
strueture. One Etb10poan studcnt
sums up
the trend...We
have
ex·
changed feudal tyranny for social·
ist tyranny.'"O
4
ART BUCHWALD
Biting
YourOwn
Bullet
(
Eduor's
not~: Th~
United
Sratts
has agrud
10
sel/
Saudf
Arobia
$800 mil/Ion warth
of modun
jet
fighl<rJ. The
Soudt
A rabian
go-r~rnmtttt
rtpons
thf'
worpJona
'"'t/1stnngthnt S""di Arabla'60bil·
rty
ro
tkftnd tht soil oftht krng·
dom. .. In neighboring /ron, the
Shah ls
bu)ofng
sophiS~Icattd
U.S.
made planes and
attptk
httllcopters
-
lo
H
dthwtrtd
tl'tn
btfort ordus
totht U.S. No•y ond Army.)
WASIIINGTON - Tbert rs a
. c:enaan
amount
ofsaber ratthn&
go–
ing on '" Washington. Henry Kiss-·
inger in a
Business Wt"tk
interview
did
not
rule out the use of force
against oit-producing
nacions if
they Sl!llngled the West
lt
is one
thin¡ to makt: such lhreall but an–
OÜI<r
10
cany
tbcm ouL
The major problem for the
United States seems to be that.
in
order to pay for foreig.n oil, we·ve
been cxponing all soru of military
cquipment to the very countrics
that
we're saber rattling agA.Jnst.
Th=
must
be
som<
wild
meetmgs
goiogoo
at
the Pentagoo thescdays.
An assis:ta_ot
s.ecretary
for4efense
says. "l'm happy to repon tbat
wc've sold
$5
billion worth or F·14
jelS ro
lran:•
An
Air Fol'«' general says. "But
we were promtSed the ncxt batch of
F-14jets."
..l"m
sorry."
the ass.u.tant seae–
tary
or defense rephes. ·•but we
need the money from Jran so we
ca11 go
lnto
producüon on our new
M·65 tanlcs whicb we'vc sold to
Saudi Arabia."
An Army general
says,
"What
are
we dooog selling M-65 tanlcs
10
SanJda Arabia when our own ar–
mored uruts have been •tripptd
barc to supply Israel?' '
"Can you pay casn ror the
tao.k.s7"' the assistant
$C:Crcaary
asb.
"You know
1. cao't."
tl\e Army
geoellll
says,
"Well Saudi Arabia
can.
And
if
we're going to have a
5ttong
de–
fense posrure, we ean•t atrord to
jusi givc away our tanks
10
the
U.S~
Army."
"Mr. Sccrewy. is tbere any word
about
my nuclear
aut:raft camcr1'"
an adm1ral asks.
"1 bave good oews for you on
that. You get the second one
we're
going to build."
"The scc:ond one? Who gctS the
fi.rst
one?..
...KUWIIL..
"Why
os
Kuwait
&<Utng
a
nu–
clear c1rrier before abe U.S.
Navy7"
.
'•aecausc we couldn't otrord to
bu1ld
it
unless
wé
sold a carrier to
thcm. You see they're financing
us
oo it and it's only fair tbey gt1 the
P.rototype."
"8ut," thc admira!
asts,
"what
happcns of the balloon goes up -
and Kuwait has: a
nuclear carrier
aod
we're
still
waiúng for
ours?"
"We'H
just borrow
sorne sub·
marines
rrom
Libya..''
lhe a.ssistant
seercwy says.
''ThtS
is
ridiculous.·· lhe Air
Force general
says.
"Everytl\••8 we
mate
we
se:H ro our
potenua.l
cne–
mics.'1
uwen
h isn't my fauh.'' the a.ssis·
tant seeretary replies pc:evishly.
"M•htary equopment
costs
money.
and the only ones who seem to
ha~e
any are the OJI-pfOducin¡
countnes.
We c:an't
alford
to
linance
our
de·
fense
unless
lhey share in
the cost
of
our new arm.s:•
"'D~s
chis
mean l'm not ¡oing to
get any new
hclícopten'?,. the
com..
mandant ofthe Marine
Corpo
atks.
-rl'lat
dcaston
hasn"t
be.eo
made
yet. We dod promise tbe Sheok or
Abu Dhabi he'd get
first crac:!c at
buying our helic:opters. But hc's
now cx:presscd an interest in an·
tiaircraft m(ssHes since we've sold
thc F·l4s
to
lran. Ir he doesn't
want tbt heltc:opters. genellll. you
can havc them."
-rhankfuUy he
doeut't want an–
titank guns,..
thc
Army
general
says.
"He doe.sn't:• the assistant secre–
tary says. "but Qatar does."
"Wbatfor?"
"To knock outtbe
tan\$
we sold
to Saudi
Anbia.-
Cop)'npt 197S,
Le1
Alft'f'/n
n_,
Art Buchwald.
Amuíca's
for~
most humor 'co/umnist. wlll H ap–
ptadng rtgufarly in the
PJajo Truth
~ginnmg
with th.is
;s.sue
Buchw<lld~
column
todo)'
opptarf
m morr titan
Jj()
n~spa¡wrs oro~t~nd
~::n;
0
!J:,a:~,!~ ~~d/ke~ttd~~~
most com;c AmericQn
obstrwr
<>ftht
world sccnt sfnce Mark Twoln.
O
by
Gene
H. Hogberg
Prime Time Crime
NEW YORK: Every time
1
come to lhis place it's less fun -
and rar more dangerous. Even a hilarious Broadway play ("Obd's
Favorilc." incidentaUy) fails 10 diven one's altenlion long enougb
from lhe torreo! of crime that
sweeps
over the
city
every hour of
tbe day.
11 all
draws full play on lhe city's television news. Nothmg
quite compa.res
wiJh
it on the tube anywhere else in the country.
Ncw
Yorkers really hnve no need of watching
Kojak
(a series
supposedly bastd upon their city's polioc files) or
Pollee Woman
or
Barella
or any otber of
a
proliferating number of police dramas
dominating prime-time television. They gel
//.e
action
for two or
more hours every nÍghl!
The
6:00
p.m. and
10:00
p.m. local news slots seem
lO
be
nothing but il!uSlrated police blouers. For
a
full hour a t each
siuing (thc firsl before dinner; lhe second a l bedtime) the vicwer
is
trealed to an endless procession of murders, muggings, armed
robberies.
arsons,
bombings, plus the usual (for
New
York) tales of
grall.
corruption and vice of every description. lncreasmg lhe
exctlement, on-the-scene reponers interoept eacb broadcasl two or
1brce times with live coverage ofa crimc in lhe making.
M
y hean especially goes oul to formcr
Los·
Angeles ncwsman
Tom Soyder now ancboring the
WNBC
6:00
p.m. news. Back in
L.A.
Tom hosttd an up-beaL "happy news" formaL He engaged in
chucldes and small·talk with bis spons reponer and weather gtrl.
But not here
in_
Ncw Yorle. 8efore the camera be sits, grimly
relelling -the day's local horrors; bebind
bim
is superimposed lbe -
gianl word'"GUNPOIN'I"'! He rerounts lhe stories ... "Tbis aner·
noon al
2:50,
tbree armed men entered a liquor store warehouse in
Queens, tied up eigbtemployees, sbot one. .. ."
Pity Tom. Pity my eab driver wbo looked like the old
comie
stnp cbaracter Andy Gump. He bad no tecth.
They
were
aO
smasbed
in
during a robbery. He refuses now oven
10
wear
his
false
teetb, lest they suJfer the same fa te.
Pi1y New York - and more than lhat, p ity our enlire sick
nation, for this
city.
because or its size and coneentrallon, only
enables a person to see in condensed form the plague of crime
atl\ictong us
all.
Across 1he nation erime
is
now almost out or control, clippong
along at a
16%
annual increase. The rates of increase are even
worse, according to FBI slatistics, in the suburban artas than in the
biggest cilies
(21%
versus
8%).
"Peaceful" rural areas are checking
-in with an astounding
20%
bike! Truly. as the propbet Eukiel said.
'"Tite land
tS
full of bloody crimes, a.nd the coty
is
full of violence"
(Ezek.iel7:23).
Wlll crime oompl<tely inundate America?
1
can't say for sure.
but lhe way 1hings are going now, the ftoodwaters are building up
sleadily, and
1
wonder if there are enough "righteous
in
the land"
lo reinforce the levees.
O
Shah
0111'111
(Continutd
J~m
pogt
J)
Mllltary Migbt Expandlng
Fut
ln
adduion
10
this
vast ec:onomic
developmeot prwam. tbe Shah is
involved in a
major
mtHtary
buildup to add
addJtlooal
muscle
to
has
atready fonnidable mtlitary
cstablishmenc. Sincc: the British
pulled out or the Persian Oulf m
1971, thc Shah has sougbtto fillthe
power vacuum and becomc the
cbief ••pro•eccor" of lhe stratepc
gulf reg>e>n. He has already made
massove purehases
or
sophi5licated
weaponry from vañous nations., in–
cluding U.S. F·4 Phantom jcts and
British Chienain tanb.
lran's only militant enemy
lS
netgbbonng lraq.
which
IS
noled.
acc:ordon¡
10
the outSpokcn Shah.
by
"a
group
of
crazy. bloodth11sty
savages." lraq is curren
ti
y being
supplicd
with
Soviet weapons to
pa.rtiaHy
counterbalance
tran's ex.·
tensove arms buildup. D<spllt
So–
voet aod to lraq.
lran
en)Oys
tpod
djplomatac and tradc
rdauons wnh
the
Sov1et
Umon. with
Y..hom she
share• a 1.000-milc border. The
Shah is neverthcless wary or Rus·
sia's uhimate designs ín
the
erea.
Toward the
Unired
Stlte.s,
thc
Shah consoders htmself a good
fnend, and despite htS
tll$1~1enet
on
hogh ool
pri<:es_
the reehna
os
for thc
most part reciprocated. The Shah
has affinned
that
han will I')Cver
ta.k:e pan in an oil
embargo tt&$inst
theWat. O
WEEK ENOING FEB. 22. 197S