Ethiopia at Bay: A Personal Account of the Haile Selassie Years

Front Cover
Tsehai Publishers, 2006 - Political Science - 409 pages
... what people are saying about this book ...'A marvelous recounting of Ethiopian and world history during those years. Mandatory reading for anyone interested in Third World relations and certainly for anyone who seeks to understand contemporary Ethiopian or Horn of Africa affairs.'?Foreign Service Journal?A significant primary source in its first hand account by a meticulously observant insider.'?Foreign Affairs?Commands attention and respect. John Spencer's personal, candid, and basically reliable record will have an honored place in the contemporary annals of that tortured country.'?Times Literary Supplement?Spencer is one of the very few living people in a position to describe Ethiopia's efforts to survive during those years.'?Library Journal?Spencer was privy to many important decisions. Of particular interest is his account of Haile Sellassie's disenchantment with the U.S.'?Publisher's Weekly?After the hard fate which befell the Emperor and his notables, Spencer is maybe the only one of the old regime's key persons still alive. There is hardly a single page one would want to miss.'?Sture Linner in Svenska Dagbladet?I found Ethiopia at Bay intensely interesting, sad and even tragic in the Greek mode. What a series of missed opportunities, anachronistic colonial arrogances, and western shortsightedness! The book would be enormously instructive to students of international relations generally.'?Lincoln Gordon, former President, Johns Hopkins University?Valuable indeed, Especially significant is Spencer's cogent analysis of the Emperor himself. Recommended for college, university, and larger public libraries.'?Choice.
 

Contents

FROM PARIS TO THE NORTHERN FRONT
3
HOW WAR HAD COME ABOUT 22
22
THE FALL OF ADDIS ABABA
44
AN APPEAL TO THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
71
HAILE SELLASSIE RETURNS WITH THE GIDEON
86
STARTING AGAIN
101
THE EMPEROR HIS MINISTERS HIS SUBJECTS
114
BREAKING FREE FROM BRITAIN
139
ERITREA INVESTIGATED
223
THE FEDERATION ACHIEVED
243
A CULMINATION
261
ETHIOPIA BESET
281
THE END COMES
326
INTO THE SOVIET ORBIT
348
REFLECTIONS ON THE PAST PROPOSALS FOR
357
EPILOGUE
371

PREPARING FOR THE PARIS PEACE
159
TO STAY WHOLE AND TO REACH THE
185
ITALIAN MANEUVERS
204
Bibliography
381
Index
393
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2006)

John Hathaway Spencer became an adviser to the Ethiopian government in 1936, when it was under attack by Mussolini's forces. He was himself present at the fall of Addis Ababa. Later he served Haile Sellassie's government as Principal Adviser to the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 1943 and 1974. His years of close involvement with Ethiopia have placed him in a unique position to interpret the significance of past and present developments in that ancient and fascinating country.A graduate of Harvard Law School, he took a State Doctorate in Law in Paris. He served with the Department of State, and was Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Dr. Spencer died on August 25, 2005 in New York State.

Bibliographic information