We are enormously grateful to the folks
at Helion & Company for bringing the story of Kagnew Battalion to light.
Emperor's Own: The History of the Ethiopian
Imperial Bodyguard Battalion in the Korean War was published under the Asia@War series and had to fit the format of
that series. Consequently, some content which might provide context, including a brief chronology of the
contributions of African-Americans to the US Army and their ill-treatment by the
nation they served, was not included in the
final version of the book. That material has been posted below…
To understand the environment the Ethiopian troops would
soon be entering in Korea, one would have to take into account US culture in the
1950’s and the history of African-Americans in the military. Blacks had fought
for America since the very start. The first casualty of the Boston Massacre in
1770 was a black man named Crispus Attucks. In the following days of the
Revolutionary War both freemen and slaves fought in the Continental Army. Some
5,000 blacks served as infantrymen, artillerymen, musicians or as unarmed
pioneers tasked with road and bridge repairs.1 George Washington’s
closest companion and valet was a slave named William Lee.
In subsequent wars, they continued to serve a nation
which often recognized the rights of enemy prisoners of war more than it did
theirs. During the Civil War, Colored Troops were established. The Buffalo
Soldiers were renowned in the American West. Although they were mostly
relegated to support roles during WWI, they fought well when given the
opportunity even while receiving poor leadership, unfair treatment and little
to no recognition. Black units held the line under French command during the
Great War.2
Ethiopia had served as a beacon for Pan-Africanists,
including blacks in the US, since her victory at Adwa marked the first time
people of color defeated white colonialists. When Fascist Italy invaded
Ethiopia again in 1935, recruitment drives for volunteer fighters sprang up in
many African-American communities including Harlem, New York. While the effort
was noble, actual foreign legions never materialized due to the many
impracticalities, not least of all were the neutrality laws.
When the US finally entered WWII, African-American tankers
spearheaded the drive into Nazi Germany, while the Tuskegee Airmen earned one
of the finest combat records in the air. Still blacks were forced out of
uniform as soon as the shooting stopped. Author Karen DeYoung, in her biography
of General Colin Powell, characterized the US Army’s relationship with
African-Americans as a “pattern of peacetime prohibition lifted only for the
manpower demand of war – of prejudice versus pragmatism.”3
In fact African-American veterans of WWII were not only denied
the same freedoms which they secured for the rest of the world, some were even
lynched. In 1946, Sgt. Isaac Woodard was on his way home after being honorably discharged
from the Army when he was pulled off the bus by police and beaten so severely
that he was blinded in both eyes.4 A veteran of the Pacific Campaign
named George Dorsey along with his wife and two companions were tied to a tree
and shot at point blank range by an estimated 60 rounds in three successive volleys.5
Gruesome atrocities against African-American veterans meant to “put them in their
place” were committed in the South.
The US government began to address these incidents as
well as the role of African-Americans in national defense under mounting
pressure from civil rights leaders. In 1946, the Gillem Board, which was tasked
with investigating the Army's policy with respect to African-Americans, submitted
a recommendation which amounted to "equality of opportunity on the basis
of segregation." The following year, the President's Committee on Civil
Rights pushed further by recommending action "to end immediately all
discrimination and segregation based on race, color, creed or national origin
in... the Armed Services." On July 26, 1948, President Truman issued
Executive Order 9981, declaring it “to be the policy of the President that
there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the
armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national
origin." While the Navy and Air Force began desegregation in earnest, the
Army leadership intentionally dragged its feet. It wasn’t until 1950 that the US
Army submitted an acceptable plan for integration.6
Events on the ground ultimately
forced the Army to abandon its policy of gradual desegregation as the need for
replacement troops in decimated frontline units trumped individual bigotry. In
April 1951, Gen. Matthew Ridgway, who was morally opposed to segregation,
requested that he be allowed to integrate all forces in his theater of
operations.7
Soon UN units under Ridgway’s command were learning to
work together. Members of the Indian Parachute Field Ambulance Unit parachuted
in with the US 187th Regimental Combat Team and provided medical treatment for
combat casualties. The Korean
Augmentation To the United States Army (KATUSA) program saw the infusion of South
Korean conscripts into US Army divisions with soldiers living and fighting
side-by-side. The Turkish Brigade had irrigated the North Korean mountainside
with its blood as it fought a bitter rearguard action during the retreat in the
wake of the Chinese intervention. The Greeks who were veterans of mountain
warfare had distinguished themselves during Operation Roundup. And the recently
integrated US Army was learning that no race had a monopoly on courage. Jim
Crow, however, would continue to be the law of the land for blacks in American
for at least another decade.
There was one more incident worthy of note vis-à-vis race
relations in America. In 1948, an Ethiopian man was invited to Constitution
Hall in Philadelphia for the centennial meeting of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science. The man was asked by an usher to leave his premium seat
in the box and to "take a seat elsewhere in the hall." He left instead.
That man was Ras Imru – Emperor Haile Selassie’s
cousin, venerated war hero, and Ambassador to the United States.8
References
1.
Bowers, William
T., William M. Hammond, George L. MacGarrigle. Black Soldier White Army. Washington
D.C.: Center of Military History, 1996, p. 4.
2.
Bowers, William
T., William M. Hammond, George L. MacGarrigle. Black Soldier White Army. Washington
D.C.: Center of Military History, 1996, p. 4, 7.
3.
DeYoung,
Karen. Soldier: The life of Colin
Powell. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, p. 39.
4.
Bowers, William
T., William M. Hammond, George L. MacGarrigle. Black Soldier White Army. Washington
D.C.: Center of Military History, 1996, p. 129.
5.
“Four Negroes
Lynched by Georgia Mob.” The Palm Beach
Post [Palm Beach, FL], 27 Jul. 1946. Web.
6.
Truman Library.
Desegregation of the Armed Forces: Chronology. Truman Library. Web.
7.
DeYoung,
Karen. Soldier: The life of Colin
Powell. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, p. 42.
8.
Associated Press. “Profound
Regret Offered Minister.” Stars and
Stripes, 17 Sept. 1948, p. 4.
© Dagmawi
Abebe 2019
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