Romance in a Marriage of Convenience: The Missionary Factor in Early Cold War U.S.-Ethiopian Relations, 1941-1960*

Abstract

Throughout the second half of the twentieth century evangelical missionaries were the primary American presence throughout Africa and much of the developing world. As the Cold War spread worldwide, and previously peripheral nations like Ethiopia achieved a new-found geopolitical significance, these religiously motivated Americans suddenly became significant players in the global conflict. While explicitly apolitical, many of these accidental diplomats nevertheless viewed the Cold War in essentially spiritually terms as a battle between “Christian” America and the “atheist” Soviet Union. It is not surprising, then, that while remaining neutral in word, between 1941 and 1960 the evangelical missionary community actively and successfully, if not always formally, promoted close ties between their own “Judeo-Christian” nation and Ethiopia's Christian Emperor.