Early Life
Mengistu received his earliest education at the St. George school in Addis Ababa, a Swiss-run school which accepted its first students in September 1929. He then became a cadet in the first class of the Oletta Military Academy, which opened January 1935; this first class of cadets could not complete their education due to the advent of the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. With his classmates, under the leadership of the Swedish Captain Viking Tamm, headmaster of Olette, they attempted to hold the Pass of Ad Termaber against the advancing Italians after the decisive Battle of Maychew (31 March 1936), but were forced to retreat to Addis Ababa. The Oletta cadets then split up into two groups: one joined Ras Imru Haile Selassie at Gore; the other, which included Mengistu, had joined Aberra Kassa and took part in the Battle of Addis Ababa, where a bold attempt to recapture the capital failed. When Aberra appeared ready to submit to the Italians, the 20 or 30 surviving cadets left him to join the Arbegnoch led by Haile Mariam Mammo in Mulu. After Haile Mariam had been killed fighting the Italians at Gorfo, near Addis Ababa (November 1938), he made his way to Khartoum where he trained with his fellow cadets Asrate Medhin Kassa, Mared Mangesha, Aman Andom and Mulugeta Bulli.
After Emperor Haile Selassie returned to Ethiopia, Mengistu became a colonel in the Ethiopian army, and in April 1956 he was made commander of the Imperial Bodyguard, replacing General Mulugeta Bulli. Considering his later role in the attempted 1960 coup, a number of writers have pointed out the irony that he served as executioner of at least one group of the participants in the 1943 Gojjame rebellion led by former Arbegnoch Balay Zallaqa, and was entrusted with apprehending the conspirators in the 1951 attempt to assassinate Emperor Haile Selassie which was led by another former Arbegnoch Nagash Bazabeh.
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