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Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 41 No. 9. April 24 1978
[Introduction]
With the conclusion of the Ogaden war, the Soviet Union has ended successfully one more phase in its African plan. The next is being prepared — the invasion of Eritrea. The arms are being readied, the Cuban mercenaries flown in, Pravda is cooking up their justifications, Soviet lickspittles the world over are organising support for the invasion, and the Eritreans wait.
Eritrea is a former Italian colony. After defeating the Italians in 1941, the British installed a military adminstration which governed the former Italian colonies until 1950. In accord with the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, Italy lost its empire in Africa and elsewhere, the former East African colonies coming under the joint authority of the United States, the Soviet Union, France and Britain.
In 1952, Britain manoevred Eritrea into a federation with Ethiopia. In 1962, with full United States support, Ethiopia forcibly annexed Eritrea. For the United States the prize was Kagnew Station, a once highly sophisticated communications base in Asmara.