Word: somali
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...those bases will presumably be the huge Soviet-built naval installation at Berbera on the Gulf of Aden, about 625 miles north of the Somali capital of Mogadishu. In 1977 Somalia's mercurial President Mohamed Siad Barre threw out several thousand of Moscow's advisers after the Kremlin opted for neighboring Ethiopia as its principal client on the Horn of Africa. Ironically, the problem that broke up the Soviet-Somali alliance could also inhibit the budding military cooperation between Washington and Mogadishu. That issue is Somalia's continued support for the Western Somali Liberation Front (W.S.L.F.), which...
Judging from the warm reception that American visitors receive, the Somali public would welcome a formal military cooperation agreement. Now that the Soviets are gone, many of the harsher vestiges of the police state, like the thugs who used to tail every foreign visitor, have disappeared...
Nevertheless, there is a huge obstacle to close ties with the U.S.: Somali pride. It was badly damaged by the ignominious defeat the army suffered in the Ogaden two years ago, and President Siad Barre was angry that Washington did not respond immediately with help after he threw out the Soviets. "The thing you must remember in dealing with Somalis is that they are a warrior race that sprang from one of the harshest environments on earth," says a Western diplomat. "Nobody is going to come in here and tell them what to do." If the price...