Quote, "Politically, Somalia is remarkably cohesive. There are almost none of the ethnic, cultural, or religious divisions which plague much of the rest of Eastern Africa." [Page 3, bullet point 2]
This was not a propaganda statement: this is quoted from a "proper" intelligence report, for the government's internal (and "secret") use only.
LINK: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000231744.pdf
This report certainly failed to foresee a world in which people of Somali ancestry would be a larger percentage of the population of Finland than Italy. And, of course, Somalis are an even larger percentage of population of the state of Minnesota.
It is peculiar to imagine how many of the specialists involved in these projects might still be alive (in Italy, in Russia, etc.) to be interviewed, retrospectively, about their experience in the making and unmaking of modern Somalia, today.
