Mengistu strikes me as a quiet, honest and convinced leader who is aware of the power of the masses. He is an intellectual personality who showed his wisdom on February 3. The rightists wanted to do away with the leftists on February 3. The prelude to this was an exuberant speech by the Ethiopian president in favor of nationalism. Mengistu met this challenge. He delayed the meeting of the Revolutionary Council by one hour and had the rightist leaders arrested and shot. A very consequential decision was taken on February 3. The political landscape of the country changed, which has enabled them to take steps that were impossible before them. Before it was only possible to support the leftist forces indirectly. Now we can do so without any constraints.*

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Mengistu strikes me as a quiet, honest and convinced leader who is aware of the power of the masses. He is an intellectual personality who showed his wisdom on February 3. The rightists wanted to do away with the leftists on February 3. The prelude to this was an exuberant speech by the Ethiopian president in favor of nationalism. Mengistu met this challenge. He delayed the meeting of the Revolutionary Council by one hour and had the rightist leaders arrested and shot. A very consequential decision was taken on February 3. The political landscape of the country changed, which has enabled them to take steps that were impossible before them. Before it was only possible to support the leftist forces indirectly. Now we can do so without any constraints.*" in the context of "Fidel Castro (1977) Minutes of the conversation between Comrade Erich Honecker and Comrade Fidel Castro, Sunday, April 3, 1977 between 11:00 and 13:30 and 15:45 and 18:00, House of the Central Committee, Berlin.https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/carterbrezhnev/docs_global_competition/Tab%202/19770403%20-%20Minutes%20of%20the%20Conversation%20between%20Comrade%20Erich%20Honecker%20and%20Comrade%20Fidel%20Castro.pdf" to mean that wisdom is timeless.