Professors and Students in the Cultural Cold War: The Case of Ethiopia^*

ABSTRACT

During the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union aspired to transform overseas academic institutions according to their political goals. Their attempts to impose certain values, disciplines, structures, and personnel were foiled by sabotage and indigenous traditions on the part of the local academic elite, particularly professors. The article illustrates futile revisions by both the United States and the Soviet Union at Ethiopian higher educational institutions and discusses the Cultural Cold War in terms of realism, constructivism, Americanisation, Sovietisation and response theory.

KEYWORDS:

• public diplomacy
• cultural diplomacy
• professors
• students
• Cold War
• Cultural Cold War

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Current studies on the Cultural Cold War are represented by a variety of narratives and concepts, and among the main areas of study the following should be noted: arts diplomacy; informational projects; US-Soviet exchanges, and many others. See, for more details: Natalia Tsvetkova, ‘Universities During the Cultural Cold War: Mapping the Research Agenda,’ in Entangled East and West: Cultural Diplomacy during the Cold War, ed. by Simo Mikkonen, Jari Parkkinen, and Giles Scott-Smith (Berlin: De Gruyter Saur, 2018), 132-56. The latest pieces: Thomas W. Shillam, ‘Shattering the ‘Looking-Glass World’: The Congress for Cultural Freedom in South Asia, 1951-55,’ Cold War History 20, no. 4 (2020): 441-59; Sergei Zhuk, ‘Hollywood’s Insidious Charms: The Impact of American Cinema and Television on the Soviet Union during the Cold War’, Cold War History 14, no. 4 (2014): 593-617.

² See, e.g.: Yale Richmond, ‘Cultural Exchange and the Cold War: How the West Won,’ American Communist History 9, no. 1 (2010): 61-75; Zachary Abuza, ‘The Politics of Educational Diplomacy in Vietnam’, Asian Survey 36, no. 6 (1996): 618-31; Jean Bocock, et al., ‘American Influence on British Higher Education: Science, Technology, and the Problem of University Expansion, 1945-1963’, Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning & Policy 41, no. 4 (2003): 327-46; Tim Kaiser, et al., ‘Educational Transfers in Postcolonial Contexts: Preliminary Results from Comparative Research on Workers’ Faculties in Vietnam, Cuba, and Mozambique’, European Education 47, no. 3 (2015): 242-59 and others.

³ See, USAID Loan: Capital and Physical Development, 1971, records group 286, Agency for International Development, entry 254, USAID Mission to Ethiopia. Education Division, box 4, National Archives Records Administration (hereafter NARA), College Park, Maryland; Reports by Soviet Visiting Specialists on the Work in Educational Institutions in Ethiopia in 1978, f. 9563. The Ministry of Education of the USSR, 1966–1988, op. 1, d. 3551, Reports by Soviet Visiting Specialists on the Work in Educational Institutions in Ethiopia, 1978, Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoy Federatsii (State Archive of the Russian Federation), (hereafter GARF).

⁴ Amanda McVety, ‘Pursuing Progress: Point Four in Ethiopia’, Diplomatic History 32, no. 3 (June 2008): 371-403; Lemma Legesse, ‘The Ethiopian Student Movement 1960-1974: A Challenge to the Monarchy and Imperialism in Ethiopia’, Northeast African Studies 1, no. 2 (1979): 31-46; Tobias Broich, ‘U.S. And Soviet Foreign Aid During the Cold War: A Case Study of Ethiopia’, Working Papers 10 (2017), accessed 10 March 2020, https://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/working-papers/abstract/?id=6367.

⁵ Both US and Soviet documents followed spelling the town’s name Bahar Dar instead of Bahir Dar.

⁶ Natalia Tsvetkova, ‘Americanisation, Sovietisation, and resistance at Kabul University: limits of the educational reforms’, History of Education 46, no. 3 (May 2017): 336-43; Natalia Tsvetkova, ‘Making a New and Pliable Professor: American and Soviet Transformations in German Universities, 1945-1990’, Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning & Policy 52, no. 2 (2014): 161-85.

⁷ See, e.g.: Roberto Velázquez, ‘Modernism Came Flying: A Micro-History of Artistic Internationalism and Cultural Encounters in US-Chilean Relations, 1968’, Cold War History, 19, no. 2 (2019): 209-32.

⁸ See, discussions about Americanisation, Sovietisation, realism, constructivism, and response theory in the studies on cultural diplomacy: Carol Atkinson, ‘Does Soft Power Matter? A Comparative Analysis of Student Exchange Programs 1980–2006’, Foreign Policy Analysis 6, no. 1 (2010): 1-22; Giles Scott-Smith, ‘Mapping the Undefinable: Some Thoughts on the Relevance of Exchange Programmes Within International Relations Theory’, Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science 616 (2008): 173–195; Jessica Gienow-Hecht, ‘Shame on US? Academics, Cultural Transfer, and the Cold War -A Critical Review’, Diplomatic History 24, no. 3 (2000): 465-95; Richard Kuisel, Seducing the French: The Dilemma of Americanisation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Natalia Tsvetkova, ‘International Education during the Cold War: Soviet Social Transformation and American Social Reproduction’, Comparative Education Review 52, no. 2 (2008): 199-217; John Connelly, Captive University: the Sovietization of East German, Czech, and Polish Higher Education, 1945–1956 (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000).

⁹ Contract between the USAID and Haile Selassie I University, 1973, records group 286, box 4, NARA.

¹⁰ Report on Examination of the Education Sector Projects of the AID Program in Ethiopia, 1971, records group 286, box 2, NARA.

¹¹ Memorandum of Conversation. Haile Selassie I University -Development, 1970, records group 286, box 4, NARA.

¹² Report on Examination of the Education Sector Projects of the AID Program in Ethiopia, 1971, records group 286, box 2, NARA.

¹³ Ethiopian Education Sector Review, 1971-72, records group 286, box 3, NARA.

¹⁴ Memorandum of Conversation. Meeting held 18 December 1969 with USAID and HSIU [Haile Selassie I University] Officials, 1969, records group 286, box 4, NARA.

¹⁵ Memorandum of Conversation. Courtesy Call on the Administrator by Dr. Aklilu Habte, President of Haile Selassie I University, Ethiopia, 1969, records group 286, box 4, NARA.

¹⁶ Memorandum. Conference with President Aklilu, 1970, records group 286, box 4, NARA; Memorandum of Conversation. Meeting held 18 December 1969, records group 286, box 4, NARA.

¹⁷ Letter from Roger Ernst, Director-Counselor, USAID, to Mr. Jerry Knoll, Bureau for Africa, Agency for International Development, 1970, records group 286, box 4, NARA.

¹⁸ Letter from S. Elvon Warner, USAID, to Dr. Cliff Liddle, Chief Education Advisor, USAID/Ethiopia, 1972, records group 286, box 5, NARA.

¹⁹ A Blueprint for Development: Haile Selassie I University, 1970, records group 286, box 4, NARA.

²⁰ Memorandum. Visit to Ethiopia under the Auspices of the Center for Educational Technology, 1972, records group 286, box 3, NARA.

²¹ Bahru Zewde, Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia: The Reformist Intellectuals of the Early Twentieth Century (New York: James Currey, 2002).

²² Report by Soviet Advisor of the Director at the Polytechnic Institute A. Shumikov, Bahar Dar, Ethiopia, 01 August 1964, f. 9606. Soviet Ministry for Higher Education, op. 1, d. 1943, Reports on Visits to Ethiopia by Soviet Specialists, 1964, l. 1., GARF.

²³ Report by Soviet Advisor …, f. 9606, op. 1, d. 1943, l. n/n, GARF.

²⁴ Report on the Work at Bahar Dar Polytechnic Institute, 1971-1974, f. 9606, op. 1, d. 6461, Reports on Visits to Ethiopia, l. 9, GARF.

²⁵ Report by Soviet Advisor …, f. 9606, op. 1, d. 1943, l. 10-11, GARF.

²⁶ Ibid, l. 15.

²⁷ See, e.g. complaints of Soviet advisors who worked in Vietnam: Natalia Tsvetkova, ‘When a Teacher Cannot be Molded by the Hands of Strangers: Teachers of English and Teachers of Russian in Vietnam, 1955-1986’, in Images of Education: Iber Amicorum voor Jeroen Dekker (Groningen: Groningen University Publisher, 2018): 197-207.

²⁸ Report by Soviet Advisor …, f. 9606, op. 1, d. 1943, l. 29, GARF; See also: Bahru Zewde, The Quest for Socialist Utopia: the Ethiopian Student Movement, c. 1960–1974 (New York: James Currey, 2014): 131.

²⁹ Report by Soviet Advisor …, f. 9606, op. 1, d. 1943, l. 27-28, GARF.

³⁰ Report by Soviet Advisor …, f. 9606, op. 1, d. 1943, l. 3, GARF.

³¹ Ibid, l. 21.

³² Ibid.

³³ Report on the Work at Bahar Dar Polytechnic Institute, 1971-1974, f. 9606, op. 1, d. 6461, Reports on Visits to Ethiopia, l. 15, GARF.

³⁴ Ibid, l. 16.

³⁵ Ibid, l. 16-17.

³⁶ Haile Selassie I University Student Enrollment, 1972–1973, records group 286, box 4, NARA.

³⁷ A Blueprint for Development: Haile Selassie I University, 1970, records group 286, box 4, NARA.

³⁸ Memorandum of Conversation. Aklilu Habte, President, Haile Selassie I University, and Roger Ernst, Director, US A.I.D. to Ethiopia, 25 May 1972, records group 286, box 4, NARA.

³⁹ Bahru Zewde, ‘The Quest for Socialist Utopia,’ p. 131, 183.

⁴⁰ Fantahun Ayele, ‘A Brief History of Bahir Dar University’, p. 7.

⁴¹ Report on the Work at Bahar Dar Polytechnic Institute, 1971-1974, f. 9606, op. 1, d. 6461, Reports on Visits to Ethiopia, l. 10, GARF.

⁴² Ibid, l. 11.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ Lemma Legesse, ‘The Ethiopian Student Movement 1960-1974: A Challenge to the Monarchy and Imperialism in Ethiopia’, Northeast African Studies 1, no. 2 (1979): 31-46.

⁴⁵ Ibid, l. 6.

⁴⁶ Ibid, l. 14.

⁴⁷ Report by Soviet Advisor …, f. 9606, op. 1, d. 1943, l. 3, GARF.

⁴⁸ Documents on the Foreign Graduate and Alumni of Soviet Higher Educational Institutions, 1988, f. 9661, State Committee on Education, op. 1, d. 337, Documents on the Alumni’s Connections, l. 1-6, GARF.

⁴⁹ Ibid, l. 5.

⁵⁰ Documents on the Participation of the Soviet Ministry of Higher Education at the Meeting of Deputy Ministers for Higher Education of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, 1987, f. 9606, op. 1, d. 351, l. 59–60, GARF.

⁵¹ Reports by Soviet Visiting Specialists … 1978, f. 9563, op. 1, d. 3551, l. 4, GARF.

⁵² Documents on the Foreign Graduate and Alumni … 1987, f. 9661, op.1, d. 337, l. 1-32, GARF.

⁵³ Jessica Gienow-Hecht, ‘Shame on US? Academics, Cultural Transfer, and the Cold War -A Critical Review’, Diplomatic History 24, no. 3 (2000): 465-95; Richard Kuisel, Seducing the French: The Dilemma of Americanisation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993); Simo Mikkonen and Pia Koivunen, Beyond the Divide: Entangled Histories of Cold War Europe New York: Berghahn Books, 2015).

⁵⁴ Ted Hopf, ‘The Promise of Constructivism in International Relations Theory’, International Security, 23, no. 1 (1998): 171-200.

⁵⁵ Alexander Wendt, ‘Constructing International Politics’, International Security 20, no. 1 (1995): 71-81; Natalia Tsvetkova, ‘International Education during the Cold War: Soviet Social Transformation and American Social Reproduction’, Comparative Education Review 52, no. 2 (2008): 199-217.

⁵⁶ Barbara Reeves-Ellington, ‘Vision of Mount Holyoke in the Ottoman Balkans: American Cultural Transfer, Bulgarian Nation-Building and Women’s Educational Reform, 1858-1870’, Gender & History 16, no. 1 (2004): 146-71; Bassam Tibi, ‘Culture and Knowledge: The Politics of Islamization of Knowledge as a Postmodern Project? The Fundamentalist Claim to De-Westernization’, Theory, Culture & Society, no. 12 (1995): 1-24.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Natalia Tsvetkova

Natalia Tsvetkova is professor of history and head of the American Studies Department at St. Petersburg State University, Russia. She writes about the Cultural Cold War, cultural diplomacy and extensively about current public and digital diplomacy.