Lake Success: The United Nations’ First Betrayal of Africa

The Setting: A Lake of “Success,” a Sea of Deception

When historians recall the formation of the United Nations, they rarely pause to ask: why Lake Success?

This unassuming New York suburb was once home to the U.S. Navy’s wartime munitions plant, converted into the first temporary headquarters of the UN from 1946 to 1951. In theory, this was a sanctuary for world peace; in practice, it was a repurposed armory. The symbolism was almost too perfect — global diplomacy built literally atop the infrastructure of war.

It was within these same walls, in 1950, that the fate of Eritrea was debated. Delegates from powers that had never set foot in Asmara argued over its destiny. The promise of self-determination — enshrined in the UN Charter — was twisted into political theater. Behind closed doors, American, British, and French representatives agreed that Eritrea’s strategic location on the Red Sea could not be “left to chance.” The Western bloc feared an independent Eritrea might fall under Arab or Soviet influence. Their solution? A “federation” with Ethiopia.

On 14 December 1950, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 390 A(V). It declared Eritrea an autonomous unit federated with Ethiopia under Emperor Haile Selassie, with its own parliament, flag, and administration — on paper. But those promises dissolved the moment the ink dried.

From Autonomy to Annexation: The Script Unfolds

Barely a year later, Addis Ababa began dismantling Eritrea’s institutions. The Eritrean parliament was pressured to conform to imperial decrees; local governance was replaced by imperial appointees; Tigrinya was sidelined in favor of Amharic. By 1962, Ethiopia unilaterally dissolved the federation altogether — and the UN, the same body that had crafted the arrangement, looked away.

Declassified U.S. State Department cables reveal that Washington’s strategic interests were already satisfied. In 1953, the U.S. signed a Military Assistance Agreement with Ethiopia, gaining access to the newly established Kagnew Station in Asmara. This was not some minor installation; it became one of America’s largest communications and intelligence bases outside its own borders, integral to intercepting Soviet signals during the Cold War.

So while Eritreans protested, the “international community” applauded Ethiopia’s stability — a euphemism for compliance. Western diplomats had achieved what they needed: an obedient ally and a surveillance outpost on the Red Sea. The autonomy clause of Resolution 390 was merely a prop — a stage curtain hiding the machinery of empire.

Lake Success and the Machinery of Empire

Let’s not pretend this manipulation was an isolated mistake. The location itself — Lake Success — offers an unintended confession. The UN held its earliest sessions in a facility once used to coordinate U.S. wartime production. Beneath the idealism of the Charter lay the same industrial logic that had defined the war: efficiency, secrecy, and control.

For the United States, Lake Success was both a testing ground and a stage for its new brand of imperialism — soft power dressed in blue helmets. The British, still nursing the wounds of empire, lent rhetorical legitimacy, while financiers and policymakers in New York and London, including the same families tied to the early Federal Reserve (1913) and Suez Canal financing (1875), ensured that “international cooperation” never strayed too far from Western economic interests.

As Eritrea was federated into submission, the U.S. was securing routes of communication across the Horn of Africa. Kagnew Station was part of the same post-colonial reordering that saw the West redraw borders, fund compliant regimes, and use institutions like the UN as instruments of strategic pacification. The resolutions may have been written in diplomatic English, but the subtext was clear: “Obey, and you will be recognized. Resist, and you will be forgotten.”

The Legacy of Lake Success: A Blueprint for Control

The 1950 Eritrea decision became a template. Western powers learned that with the right rhetoric, they could dictate African fates without ever firing a shot. The same formula reappeared in the Congo crisis of 1960, in the manipulation of votes over Western Sahara, and in the veto politics that continue to protect allies while punishing adversaries.

When Eritreans finally won independence in 1993 — through three decades of sacrifice — they did so without UN support, without the blessing of the so-called “international community,” and despite every foreign attempt to rewrite their destiny. Lake Success had promised peace but delivered servitude. It was not a failure of the UN; it was its intended function — to make global hierarchy appear as global harmony.

And so the irony endures: a place named Success marked one of the earliest betrayals of African self-determination. A body formed to prevent empire became its most eloquent disguise. Behind the flags and speeches lay the same financial networks, the same strategic alliances, and the same quiet beneficiaries — all ensuring that freedom would always come at a price, payable in sovereignty.