Several years ago, high in the medieval fortress city of Gondar, once the capital of Ethiopian emperors, I found myself in a poker game with an unusual assortment of Americans — three Peace Corps volunteers and a pair of U.S. Army Green Berets. Somehow, the game, with its clashing Americans, has always symbolized for me the double, contradictory role of American influence and involvement in the Ethiopia of Emperor Haile Selassie. On one hand, the United States supports the traditional, authoritarian regime of the Emperor. American money helps him suppress a regional rebellion in Eritrea without his worrying about the grievances that cause it; and American money allows him to procrastinate as much as he likes in implementing the reforms that might modernize Ethiopia. At the same time, the United States, largely through its influence in education, has catalyzed revolutionary forces that threaten the authoritarianism of the Emperor, and may someday transform Ethiopia. This second role is largely accidental, and many American officials do not recognize it. Ironically, one immediate sign of it is a periodic outpouring of anti-Americanism from young Ethiopians...

Internal Trouble Weakening Empire Just as It Faces Crisis With Somali Republic - Guerrilla insurrections are growing more intense in Ethiopia, weakening the empire just as it faces a crisis that could lead to war with the Somali Republic. The internal trouble, in fact, may help avert war by making Ethiopia more cautious in its dealings with the Somali Republic. The crisis centers on Sunday's referendum in French Somaliland, a nub of coastal land between Ethiopia and the Somalia Republic. The tiny territory will decide whether it wants independence or continued French control. If the French withdraw, the territory of 82,000 people may find itself too weak economically to stay independent very long. But the Somali Republic, which claims the territory as its own, says it will never tolerate Ethiopian control. And Ethiopia, which depends heavily on the territory's port of Djibouti, says it will never tolerate Somali control...