page_title: Africa–United States relations
section_title: Ethiopia
hierarchical_section_title: Africa–United States relations / Pre-1940 / Ethiopia
caption_attribution_description: English: Arrival ceremony for Emporer Haille Sellasse [sic]
context_page_description: Africa-United States relations covers the diplomatic relationships between the United States and the independent African countries, with some information on political, economic and cultural ties.
context_section_description: U.S.-Ethiopian relations were established in 1903, after meetings in Ethiopia between Emperor Menelik II and an emissary of President Theodore Roosevelt. This first step was augmented with treaties of arbitration and conciliation signed at Addis Ababa 26 January 1929. These formal relations included a grant of Most Favored Nation status, and were good up to the Italian occupation in 1935.
  Italy invaded and conquered Ethiopia 1935, and evaded League of Nations sanctions. The United States was one of only five countries which refused to recognize the Italian conquest. During World War II, British forces expel the Italians and restored independence to Ethiopia.  In January 1944, when President Franklin Roosevelt met personally with Emperor Haile Selassie in  Egypt. The meeting both strengthened the Emperor's already strong predilection towards the United States, as well as discomforted the British who had been at odds with the Ethiopian government over the disposition of Eritrea and the Ogaden. In the 1950s, Ethiopia became a minor player in the Cold War after signing a series of treaties with the United States, and receiving  $282 million in military assistance and $366 million in economic assistance in agriculture, education, public health, and transportation.  In 1957, Vice President Richard Nixon visited Ethiopia and called it "one of the United States' most stalwart and consistent allies".
  The economic aid came through Washington's "Point Four" program and served as a model for American assistance to the newly independent African nations.  The original goal of "Point Four" was containing the spread of communism, which was not a major threat in Africa in the 1950s. More broadly it served as a political project to convince Africans that it was to their long-term interest to side with the West. The program  sought to improve social and economic conditions without interfering with existing political or social order.
caption: Emperor Haille Sellasse and President Nixon in 1969.
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