The Soviets and the seeds for revolution...

Due to Britain's support of Kenya's decision not to grant the ethnically Somali NFD to Somalia, diplomatic ties were severed. Relations were similar with France as a result of opposition to the French presence in the Territory of the Afars and Issas (formerly French Somaliland, later independent Djibouti).

As mentioned earlier, Somalia's major political theme is the reunification of Greater Somalia, mainly the groups which had been forcibly merged into other states. These are mainly in French Somaliland, in Ethiopia (the annexed Ogaden and Haud regions) and in northern Kenya. However, wodepsread failure to make any progress is blamed on the strong western support for Ethiopia and Kenya. Therefore, although Somalia's leaders have been educated at the hands of her previous western leaders, she also wished to to demonstrate self-reliance and nonalignment. Thus, with diplomatic relations strained or cut off from the western world, Somalia turned to another powerful backer: the Soviet Union.

The growth of Soviet influence in Somalia dated from 1962, when Moscow agreed to provide loans to finance the training and equipping of the armed forces. By the late 1960s, about 300 Soviet military personnel were serving as advisers to the Somali forces, whose inventories had been stocked almost entirely with equipment of East European manufacture. During the same period, about 500 Somalis received military training in the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union also provided nonmilitary assistance, including technical training scholarships, printing presses, broadcasting equipment for the government, and agricultural and industrial development aid. By 1969 considerable nonmilitary assistance had also been provided by China. Such projects included the construction of hospitals and factories and in the 1970s of the major north-south road.

Despite the reliance on the Soviets, the United States was given the task of training the police force. The Somali government purposely sought different foreign sponsors to instruct its security forces, and Western-trained police were seen as counterbalancing the Soviet-trained military. Likewise, the division of training missions was believed to reduce dependence on either the West or the communist countries to meet Somali security needs.

Eventually having both American and Soviet instructors training the different security forces took its toll and Somalia was going to have to choose a side in the Cold War.

Sources here, here, here, and here.