Professor Spencer has played an active role in the bringing of American Enterprises such as TWA and Sinclaire Oil Concession to Ethiopia. He helped in the negotiation of the Mutual Security Defense installation (U.S. Army Base) in 1953, the export-import Bank loan ($24x10^6) in 1956. An advocate of Ethiopian Unity, he was a major player in bringing about the federalization of Eritrea with Ethiopia in 1952, with his efforts in the Paris Peace Conference with the United Nations. Professor Spencer graduated from Grinneli College in 1929, Harvard Law School in 1941. In addition he received a Diploma from Institute de Houtes Etudes and Doctorat d’Etat en Droit International in 1933 and 1935 respectively. His academic honors include, Phi Beta Kappa, Grinneli Scholar, Harvard Scholar, Carnegie Fellow in International Law, French Government Scholar, Humboldt Fellow (University of Berlin). Professor Spencer has served in the U.S. Navy, Department of Justice and has held numerous governmental positions and offices. He has published many articles and books among which Ethiopia at Bay: A Personal Account Haile Sellassie Years is the most recognized by Ethiopians. SEED would like to thank Prof. Spencer for the Professor John H. Spencer, S.E.E.D's 2001 Honoree By Dr. Getachew Haile In 1947, Addis Ababa was told that the Palace had an important visitor. We students were excited about the visit even though we did not know for sure who this person was. In fact, that did not matter to us. What mattered was that we had an important visitor. We must be important people that our palace had such a visitor. We were just excited. We, the students of the Holy Trinity Theological School, felt fortunate and privileged to be in a position to greet the guest, clapping our hands because he passed by our school more than once. Our school was located on Queen Elizabeth Street. Perhaps I should rather say that Queen Elizabeth Street passed by our school. We welcomed the visitor several times, standing on the balcony of the second floor of the office building as he was driving from Arat Kilo to Qebbenna. It was only in 1984, thanks to Professor John Spencer's Ethiopia at Bay (Algonac, Michigan), that I learned the identity of the guest. It was Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery of al-Alamein, of the British Army during World War II. We saw him as he was apparently driving from Gennete Leul Palace in Siddist Kilo, where he was entertained by the Atse, to the British Embassy, where he stayed. Obviously, he took King George VI Street south and turned east at Arat Kilo on Queen Elizabeth St. The story of General Montgomery's visit is told vividly by Professor Spencer. His report is not only fascinating but also of historical and political importance. "For days," says Professor Spencer, "the business of the government ground to a halt in preparation for the event." Why did the General come to Ethiopia? And how did he treat his caring host? I recommend every Ethiopian with interest in the history of his/her country in general and in the Ethio-British relations in particular to take note of the account of this minor but telling incident. I knew of the major role which Professor Spencer played in Ethiopian politics of the mid 30s through early 70s only when I read a pre-publication copy of his Ethiopia at Bay. What I knew about the professor until then was that there was, among the advisers at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a Ferenji totally dedicated to the service of Ethiopia. His book and subsequent events told me who that Ferenji was. He was indeed the trusted Professor Spencer, whose code of ethical conduct he set for himself as an adviser can be seen in an anecdote he recorded as a footnote on p.183-4: "During the Paris Peace Conference, I sought out my long-time professor and friend, de La Pradelle. He remarked that he would like to see one of his sons come to Ethiopia as an adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. While I did not doubt the son's competence, the father, in one sentence, destroyed all possibility of that appointment. 'Of course,' he remarked, 'if a question came up in the Ministry where he had to choose between Ethiopia and France, the interests of France would have to come first.' In such a situation, if the issue is one of critical importance which cannot be resolved except by substantial injury to one side or the other, the adviser must resign. He would have failed professionally to perform his functions, one of which would be to prevent such crises from arising." Some one could understandingly accuse me of assessing the services rendered by Professor Spencer on the basis of the information provided by the professor himself. In fact, people could even ask, "Why a non-Ethiopian, and from an Imperialist country at that, was involved in Ethiopian politics in the first place?" It was clear that the country needed, at that time, experts in all fields. These were not available in the country. There was no alternative to getting assistance from foreigners. In such a case we may have to distinguish between two types of problems that could arise, one involving interests of the hiring country against that of the hired, and another involving interests of other countries. It would be natural if such advisers were parital when a question touched the interests of their motherland and conflicted with those of other countries. Would not an Ethiopian, if hired by the State Department, favor Ethiopia's interests over those of other countries competing, for example, for the same assistance from the United States? As far as a conflict between the interests of Ethiopia and the United States is concerned, I have not heard of any criticism directed at my dear friend Professor Spencer for putting his own country first. In fact, from all I know now, I can dare say that the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was fortunate to find such an honorable person. The acute conflict in Ethiopia at that time was between other countries: the United Kingdom and the United States, and the Soviet Union and the United States. If Professor Spencer sided with the United States at that critical moment, history has proven him right. At that time Ethiopia needed the United States to get rid of the United Kingdom as much as it need earlier the United Kingdom to get rid of Italy. There was no reason for Ethiopia to be unhappy if the United States pushed the United Kingdom out of the first place it laid for itself. The United States wanted the Soviet Union out of Africa. Here too the interests of the two governments (of the United States and Ethiopia) coincided. It was the policy of Atse Haile Sellasie's government to keep Communism out of Ethiopia. Those who are not as close to Professor Spencer as I am may not know that he is extremely critical of the tole the United States played in assisting the TPLF when it established a non-democratic government in Ethiopia in 1991. He is even more critical that the United States call that government, inhumanely, democratic when it knows full well that it is not. He did not go along with the United States when it pursued its interests by supporting Ato Meles Zenawi and his party established to liberate the provinces of Tigray and Eritrea from the rest of Ethiopia. What I have said so far about the knowledge I gained from John's book is only a prelude to what I am going to confess. I was ignorant about the foreign policy of Atse Haile Sellase's government until I read Ethiopia at Bay. Reading it was for me an enlightenment. Before that, I hardly knew anything of importance about the genesis and subsequent events of the Ethio-Somali conflict, why they called part of the Ogaden "The Reserve Area," how much damage the British did to Ethiopia during their short stay in our country following the departure of the Italian army, and most of all, about the struggle and sacrifice Ethiopia made combating Italy, the United Kingdom and Egypt to fulfill the wishes of the Eritreans made to be united with Ethiopia. With ther appearnace of Ethiopia at Bay, the curtain that hid from the Ethiopian people the achievements of the time, that could make them proud of their politicians, or at least less critical of them, was lifted. But alas! It is too late; by now we have destroyed what was behind the curtain without knowing what it was. Here is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to Professor Spencer when I finished reading his book: "I would like to express my sincere appreciation of your book Ethiopia at Bay (1984). It contains a part of Ethiopian History that would have remained unkown had you not written it. You wrote a book from which I learned a great deal. As far as the information in it is concerned, it is a book which I cannot compare to any other book on Ethiopia I have read in years... Ethiopia has certainly achieved a great deal during the period you covered. But you have not written much on why the present generation failed to appreciate these achievements. Maybe because you thought that the answer to that would be found in the Emperor's statement [you quoted on p.341]: 'It is clear that you don't know your own country's history.' The administration, probably afraid of exposing itself to criticism, kept the Ethiopians - the public in general and the school children in particular - in the dark as to what went on during this period. How is an Ethiopian expected to know his history and appreciate the efforts of his leaders if it was the policy of the Ethiopian governments, past or present, to limit the knowledge of history to the court? Ethiopians would have rallied behind their leaders had they known that the country had so many enemies [as your book shows]". I had to mail my letter to the publisher because I did not know at that time John's mailin address. Our relationship began when he wrote me a gracious letter in 1988, seizing a fortunate opportunity. The opportunity to meet Professor John Spencer in person presented itself at a rally at the United Nations, organized by the Medhin Party to protest the organization's preparedness to reverse its decision regarding Eritrea. The professor made a passionate speech criticising the intention of the UN from the vantage point of a knowledge of the details about the issue. The next morning a few of the protesters who were still in New York, including Professor Spencer and I, were invited by Dr Aklilu Habte to a big breakfast. At that moment, I asked Professor Spencer, "Sir, the EPLF and the TPLF claim that the Italian colony of Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia without the consent of the Eritreans. Why was a referendum not taken? As an adviser of the Ethiopian government, how could you miss the far-reaching consequences of this failure?" I am not sure now if he took the question as an accusation. His answer was, "The entire colony was out to show the UN commission its irreversible desire and unstoppable determination to be united with Ethiopia. The other parties, opposing union for one reason or another, did not muster members worthy of the name. Eritreans' desire and determination to be de jure Ethiopians as they have been always de facto, was absolutely clear to the delegation. These liberation movements raise the question of referendum today to justify their unjustifiable stand. They are, unfortaunely, equally determined to do what they were established for. If the futile referendum was held at that time, they would have brought other excuses, such as "It was not conducted freely and fairly." I understood what Professor Spencer meant by that only last year when I read Ambassador Zewdie Retta's Amharic book on the history of the Eritrean Question. In fact, the first and only question should be: "Was there a need for a referendum in the first place?" No, there was not! Would the policeman who rescued a kidnapped child insist that the child be asked whether he/she would like to stay with him, or with his/her kidnapper, or choose another family, or go straight to his/her parents? SPeaking about Eritrea, Professor Spencer's other grief in life (he lost his wife just last month) must be watching the destruction of an edifice at whose construction he handed to the builders its cornerstone. Since our meeting in New York on that infamous year for the history of Ethiopia, our relationship has grown stronger and stronger day by day, thanks to the TPLF and EPLF. He has always been there whenever patriotic Ethiopians needed his help. He is a significant advisor to the Ethiopian Register, the Medhin Party and the AAPO; he is the President of the Professor Asrat Woldeyes Foundation for Human Rights. In short he has been patriotic Ethiopians' right hand man on the question of International Law. To give an example from my own experience, a question that has worried me most was what self-determination meant for the territorial integrity of a nation. Does the international law give the right to any group to undo a well-established, indeed, an ancient nation, like Ethiopia, in the name of self-determination? John's assurance came in a letter he faxed to me on May 18, 1993:"Last night after our telephone conversation, I tried in vain to call you back to draw your attention to what you undoubtedly already know, namely, that the UN Resolution 1514 XV, 1960, in its paragraph 6 provides that territorial integrity (Article 2[4] of the Charter) overrides self-determination (paragraph 2 of Resolution 1514 XV). This same is true of UN Resolution 2625 XXV of 1970. The final paragraphs (34 and 35) of that portion of the Resolution concerned with "The Principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples", override the delf-determination (the second paragraph in that portion of the Resolution 2625 XXV)." John has been adviser to Ethiopians, not only by writing letters but also by coming to wherever he was needed. In his unreserved graciousness to help he has been all over North America. I have met him in Winnipeg, Canada, in Washington, DC, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and in Los Angeles, California. I know he has been to Atlanta, Georgia, too. I also know that many Ethiopians come to him with their personal problems and leave indebted to him. What amazes me most about Professor Spencer is that, with all the experitse he has acquired through years of teaching and other experiences to give useful advice in solving difficult problems, he has no qualm in soliciting advice from his juniors such as myself when things are not clear to him. My reaction initially was to blush, because I grew up never daring to give advice to my seniors, but John is a person who makes one feel at ease when conversing with him, despite his stature in age and rank. To add one more point to what I have observed in John, I do not remember a single time throughout our long and close relationship, when he ever forgot to be grateful for the tiniest thing one might do to express concern about him. A simple "How are you, John?" is rewarded with endless expressions of gratitude. To give you one example, here is how he started the letter he wrote me on March 27, 1993: "I was greatly touched by your sensitive call to me last evening. You are, indeed a great and highly admired friend." The call I made was a concern about his well-being after the trip he made to New York City for the rally at the United Nations. I congratulate S.E.E.D. for honoring this most trusted American friend and loyal civil servant of Ethiopia. John, this recognition is the least Ethiopians can do for you. I am honored to be given the opportunity to say these few words about you, my dear friend. My heartfelt congratulations for the recognition you have earned. One or two words before I conclude: I see the names of Professor Mesfin Wolde Mariam Indale and Ato Tsegaye Gebremadhin among this year's honorees. If I were asked about which one of these I would prefer to speak with full entusiasm, my answer would have been, "About all of them." Congratulations, Mrs. Alemtsehaye Wodajo, Professor Mesfin, Ato Tsegaye, Miss Acklecia McVoym, Mr. Getinet Bantayeu, my Nebyat Demessie, and Miss Selamawit Mulugeta. Thank you and God bless. Getachew Haile