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President: ABDIKASSIM
Salad Hassan (since 26 August 2000); note -chosen for a three-year
term by National Assembly serving as a transitional government;
The present political situation is still unstable, particularly in the
south, with interclan fighting and random banditry Prime
Minister :HASSAN Abshir Farah (since 12 November 2001)
President
Bush ordered the U.S. military to begin a humanitarian relief airlift
to Somalia.
Only solution
to mass starvation (5000 Somalis were dying per week as of October
1992) was massive ship and overland truck transport.with military
protection of the shipments against the predatory warlords who
controlled Mogadishu's seaport and airport.
December:
President Bush ordered successful military operation w/ other
countries to stop starvation
1991
US
Embassy Closed - Severing Diplomatic Relations
The newly constructed U.S.
Embassy invaded by bandits, American staff escape on
helicopters operating in the nearby Gulf war.
1990
Ambassador:
Bishop, James Keough Foreign Service
officer;
U.S. Ambassador to Niger,
1979-81; Liberia,
1987; Somalia,
1990. Still living as of 1991
Washington Post Article: Reconstructing
a Shattered Somalia
Siad Barre's military looses control of most of country defending only
Mogadishu
1989
NCOIC:GySgt John G. Cotton.
Sgt Glenn Nelson, Sgt Graham Shaw Sgt Bryan K. Robinson Sgt
Mike Chinn Cpl Tracy Kruse Sgt Chuck
O'Connell, Cpl Rob Denning Cpl Darren Ritter Cpl Jeff Davis
US
Congress cuts off military aid to Somalia
1988
NCOIC:GySgt John G. Cotton.
Sgt Glenn Nelson, Sgt Graham Shaw Sgt Bryan K. Robinson Sgt
Mike Chinn Cpl Tracy Kruse Sgt Chuck
O'Connell, Cpl Rob Denning Cpl Darren Ritter Cpl Jeff Davis
Chuck
O'Connell: "Sgt Nelson was awarded a Navy Achievement Medal for
his efforts in providing first aid to small child that had
become
trapped in, I think, a sewage drain. Try as he did the
child did not
survive."
1987
NCOIC: SSgt Bob Miley
Sgt Glenn Nelson, Sgt Graham Shaw Sgt Bryan K. Robinson Sgt
Mike Chinn Cpl Tracy Kruse Sgt Chuck
O'Connell, Cpl Rob Denning Cpl Darren Ritter Cpl Jeff Davis
Ambassador: T. Frank Crigler.
U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda,
1976; Somalia,
1987.
1986
1985
1984
Ambassador: Peter Bridges
Foreign Service officer;
U.S. Ambassador to Somalia,
1984-86. Still living as of 2003. Books by Peter Bridges: Safirka
: An American Envoy (2000).
1983
1982
Ambassador:
Oakley, Robert Bigger, of Louisiana.
Foreign Service officer;
U.S. Ambassador to Zaire,
1979-82; Somalia,
1982; Pakistan,
1988. Still living as of 1991
1981
1980
U.S.
takes over the former Soviet naval and air facility in the Somali port
of Berbera
1979
25
August 1979, presidential approval 23 September 1979
note: the Transitional National Government formed in August 2000
1978
Ambassador:
Petterson, Donald K.
Foreign Service officer; U.S. Ambassador to Somalia,
1978; Tanzania,
1986; Sudan,
1992. Still living as of 1992
1977
Siad
Barre attacked Ethiopia 1975 , hoping to take advantage of the disarray
in the Ethiopian military (after coup). Ethiopia called for assistance
from the Soviet Union / Cuba (5,000 troops). Invading Somali army
defeated
1976
1975
Ambassador: Loughran, John
Lewis U.S. Ambassador to Somalia,
1975. Still living as of 1991.
U.S. policy toward Somalia changed
after military coup in Ethiopia overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie
in favor pro-Soviet group; DERGUE, under the leadership of
Mengistu Haile Merriam. This gave the Soviets an opening to become
close to the Ethiopians in order to further undermine U.S. influence
and gain control over the Red Sea lanes leading to the Indian Ocean and
Persian Gulf. The Soviet aim was to use their friendship with both
Ethiopia and Somalia to reconcile the two feuding powers as "Marxist
brothers." However, they failed to understand that in the mind of Siad
Barre, the friend of their enemy (Ethiopia) could not be simultaneously
a friend of Somalia. For Siad Barre, Somali irredentism was much more
important than Marxist scientific socialism.
1974
1973
Ambassador:
Kirk, Roger
U.S. Ambassador to Somalia,
1973-75; Romania,
1985. Still living as of 1991
1972
Ambassador: Looram, Matthew James,
Jr.
Ambassador to Dahomey,
1969; Somalia,
1972. Still living as of 1991.
1971
1970
1969
Ambassador:
Hadsel, Fred Latimer
Served in the U.S. Army during World War II;
U.S. Ambassador to Somalia,
1969; Ghana,
1971. Still living as of 1991.
October: military coup by Mohammed Siad Barre , "scientific
socialism" adopted as Somali state policy
Somalia becomes Cold War pawn between Washington and Moscow.
The country's strategic location made the U.S.-Soviet competition all
the more intense.
Soviets
developed an air and naval facility in the port city of Berbera on
Somalia's northwest coast, pour arms into
Somalia in order to menace Ethiopia
1968
1967
1966
1965
Ambassador: Thurston, Raymond LeRoy
(1913-1981) --of Missouri.
Foreign Service officer; U.S. Ambassador to Haiti,
1961-63; Somalia,
1965.
Died in 1981.
1964
1963
1962
Ambassador: Horace G. Torbert Jr.
Colonel in the U.S. Army during World War II; U.S. Ambassador to Somalia,
1962; Bulgaria,
1970-73. Still living as of 1991.
1961
1960
1 July
1960 (from a merger of British Somaliland, which became independent
from the UK on 26 June 1960, and Italian Somaliland, which became
independent from the Italian-administered UN trusteeship on 1 July
1960, to form the Somali Republic) Ambassador:Lynch, Andrew Green
Foreign Service officer; U.S. Vice Consul in Tientsin,
1929; U.S. Consul in Lagos,
1943; U.S. Ambassador to Somalia,
1960. Died in 1966. Burial location
unknown.
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