{{Short description|Biography of a top military leader of Ethiopia}}
General '''Demissie Bulto''' ({{langx|am|ደምሴ ቡልቶ}}) was a highly decorated officer and commander of the First Army during the Somalian-Ethiopia war of the 1970s.<ref name="auto">{{cite journal |last1=Tareke |first1=Gebru |title=From Lash to Red Star: The Pitfalls of Counter-Insurgency in Ethiopia, 1980-82 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3876045 |journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies |date=2002 |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=465–498 |doi=10.1017/S0022278X02003981 |jstor=3876045 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> He is described as "an officer with a well merited reputation for strategic vision, integrity, discipline, and decisiveness."<ref name="auto"/>
== Life == After graduating from the Royal Guard Military Academy of King Haileselassie, Demissie served in Korea during the Korean War as part of the UN mission.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kifle |first1=Elias |title=A book about Gen. Demissie Bulto released in DC |url=https://ethiopianreview.com/content/11208 |website=Ethiopianreview.com |date=13 November 2009 |publisher=Ethiopian Review |access-date=January 10, 2013}}</ref>
Demissie attended the Infantry Leadership Course at Fort Benning Georgia, was among the first airborne officers trained in Israel and subsequently graduated from the US Army Staff and Command College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Demissie |first1=Derege |title=Abate Yachin Seat |date=2008 |publisher=Aesop Publishers |location=Washington DC |pages=19–21 |url=https://www.demissiebulto.com}}</ref>
In 1968, he was identified by the US embassy in Ethiopia as a "highly decorated airborne officer" with "potential to rise to the very top of the Ethiopian Army."<ref>{{cite web |title=SHAKE-UP IN TOP MILITARY COMMAND STRUCTURE |url=https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1977ADDIS04505_c.html |website=wikileaks.org |publisher=US Department of State}}</ref>
In may 1989 General Demissie, then stationed in Asmara as commander of the Second Army, played a key role in the 1989 Ethiopian coup attempt to overthrow Ethiopia's brutal dictator Mengistu Hailemariam.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Harwood |first1=Richard |title=BLOODBATH THE MEDIA MISSED |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1989/07/23/a-bloodbath-the-media-missed/d7a4fd4d-466d-4656-8650-69cbe127f428/ |access-date= |agency=Washington Post |newspaper=Washington Post |date=July 22, 1989}}</ref> General Demissie was killed after three days of leading the effort to overthrow Mengistu.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Perlez |first1=Jane |title=Ethiopia Leader tells of Execution of Coup Leaders |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/19/world/ethiopia-leader-tells-of-execution-of-coup-figure.html |access-date= |work=New York Times |date=May 19, 1989}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}} Category:Year of birth missing Category:1989 deaths Category:Military personnel of the Korean War Category:Ethiopian generals
{{Ethiopia-mil-bio-stub}}