MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION
PARTICIPANTS: President Nixon
Emperor Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia
Haile Minassie, Ethiopian Foreign Minister
Major General Brent Scowcroft, Deputy Assistant
to the President for National Security Affairs
DATE AND TIME: Tuesday, May 15, 1973
11:03 a. m. -12:13 p. m.
PLACE: The Oval Office

The danger is a convergence of views of the Arabs and the
Soviet Union. A minimum sacrifice on the part of the U. S. would
prevent dangerous developments in area.
The ELF is being supported.
Somalia has Soviet support for its territorial claims, and the Soviet
Union is arming Somalia.
The position of Somalia is that wherever people speak Somalian they
belong to Somalia. We respond that this is a problem for all of Africa
as a result of boundaries drawn by the colonial powers. Therefore,
African states have agreed to recognize the existing borders. Somalia
is the only one that has not agreed to this formula. We have offered
to provisionally demarcate the boundary under UN auspices. Somalia
has refused, and is being armed to a dangerous extent. They have air
bases, naval bases, and communication bases.