SOMALIA: The Russians on Africa's Horn

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Perhaps the most puzzling question raised by the Bartlett trip is why President Mohamed Siad Barre invited U.S. officials to Berbera in the first place. Siad, a taciturn career soldier who came to power after a leftist military coup in 1969, ingenuously told the Senator, "You won't find anything there." One theory is that Siad genuinely did not know the full significance of the Soviet construction at Berbera, and may have been prevented by some of his own aides from finding out. Another, perhaps more plausible explanation is that Siad may have been attempting, however obliquely, to demonstrate that he would welcome more U.S. aid—not just more help for dealing with the severe drought that has taken at least 10,000 Somali lives in the past six months but also some American arms to counterbalance the current Soviet domination.

Strategic Sacrifices. Bartlett left Berbera convinced that Somalia should indeed receive more U.S. aid for the drought. But he and his party were troubled that the Somalis had already made so many strategic sacrifices to the Soviet Union. "The Somalis may have sovereignty here," said a Pentagon specialist as he left Berbera, "but it is the Soviets who will be using it and calling the shots."