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Somalia Foreign Relations, 1960-69
Somalia's government was in the hands of leaders who were
favorably disposed toward the Western democracies, particularly
Italy and Britain, in whose political traditions many of them had
been educated. Nevertheless, as a reflection of its desire to
demonstrate self-reliance and nonalignment, the Somali government
established ties with the Soviet Union and China soon after
independence.
The growth of Soviet influence in Somalia dated from 1962,
when Moscow agreed to provide loans to finance the training and
equipping of the armed forces. By the late 1960s, about 300
Soviet military personnel were serving as advisers to the Somali
forces, whose inventories had been stocked almost entirely with
equipment of East European manufacture
(see Foreign Military Assistance
, ch. 5). During the same period, about 500 Somalis
received military training in the Soviet Union. As a result of
their contact with Soviet personnel, some Somali military
officers developed a Marxist perspective on important issues that
contrasted with the democratic outlook of most of the country's
civilian leaders.
The Soviet Union also provided nonmilitary assistance,
including technical training scholarships, printing presses,
broadcasting equipment for the government, and agricultural and
industrial development aid. By 1969 considerable nonmilitary
assistance had also been provided by China. Such projects
included the construction of hospitals and factories and in the
1970s of the major north-south road.
Somalia's relations with Italy after independence remained
good, and Italian influence continued in the modernized sectors
of social and cultural affairs. Although their number had dropped
to about 3,000 by 1965, the Italians residing in Somalia still
dominated many of the country's economic activities. Italian
economic assistance during the 1960s totaled more than a quarter
of all the nonmilitary foreign aid received, and Italy was an
important market for Somali goods, particularly food crops
produced on the large, Italian-owned commercial farms in the
river valleys. Italy's sponsorship enabled Somalia to become an
associate of the European Economic Community (EEC), which formed
another source of economic and technical aid and assured
preferential status for Somali exports in West European markets.
In contrast to the cordial relations maintained with Italy,
Somalia severed diplomatic ties to Britain in 1962 to protest
British support of Kenya's position on the NFD. Somalia's
relations with France were likewise strained because of
opposition to the French presence in the Territory of the Afars
and Issas (formerly French Somaliland, later independent
Djibouti). Meanwhile, the Federal Republic of Germany (West
Germany) provided Somalia with a moderate amount of aid, most
notably sharing with Italy and the United States the task of
training the police force. The Somali government purposely sought
a variety of foreign sponsors to instruct its security forces,
and Western-trained police were seen as counterbalancing the
Soviet-trained military. Likewise, the division of training
missions was believed to reduce dependence on either the West or
the communist countries to meet Somali security needs
(see
Somalia Police Force
, ch. 5).
Throughout the 1960s, the United States supplied nonmilitary
aid to Somalia, a large proportion of it in the form of grants.
But the image of the United States in the eyes of most Somalis
was influenced more by its support for Ethiopia than by any
assistance to Somalia. The large scale of United States military
aid to Ethiopia was particularly resented. Although aid to that
country had begun long before the Somali-Ethiopian conflict and
was based on other considerations, the Somalis' attitude remained
unchanged as long as the United States continued to train and
equip a hostile neighbor.
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