Haile Selassie I
Haile Selassie contributed Ethiopian troops to the United Nations operation in the Congo peacekeeping force during the 1960 Congo Crisis to preserve Congolese integrity, according to United Nations Security Council Resolution 143. On 13 December 1960, while Haile Selassie was on a state visit to Brazil, his Kebur Zabagna (Imperial Guard) forces staged an unsuccessful coup and briefly proclaimed Haile Selassie's eldest son, Asfa Wossen, as emperor. The regular army and police forces crushed the coup attempt since it lacked broad popular support; was denounced by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; and was unpopular with the army, the air force, and thr police. The effort to depose the Emperor, however, had support among students and the educated classes. The coup attempt has been characterized as a pivotal moment in Ethiopian history, when Ethiopians "for the first time questioned the power of the king to rule without the people's consent". Student populations began to empathise with the peasantry and the poor and advocate on their behalf. The coup spurred Haile Selassie to accelerate reform, which was manifested in the form of land grants to military and police officials.