"Cowboy diplomacy Cowboy diplomacy is a term used by critics to describe the resolution of international conflicts through brash risk-taking, intimidation, military deployment, or a combination of such tactics. It is criticized as stemming from an overly simple, dichotomous world view. Overtly provocative phraseology typically centralizes the message. One of the earliest known applications of the term was in 1902, when it was used by the American press to describe U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policies. Roosevelt had at the time summarized his approach to international diplomacy as ""Speak softly and carry a big stick"", an adage that was engraved"
"personality: ""When he wished he were elsewhere, he pursed his lips, folded his arms, and said nothing. He looked then precisely as though he had been weaned on a pickle."" As president, Coolidge's reputation as a quiet man continued. ""The words of a President have an enormous weight,"" he would later write, ""and ought not to be used indiscriminately."" Coolidge was aware of his stiff reputation; indeed, he cultivated it. ""I think the American people want a solemn ass as a President,"" he once told Ethel Barrymore, ""and I think I will go along with them."" Some historians would later"
"U.S. policy, called for a pause in the bombing of North Vietnam. In a perhaps apocryphal story, when a furious President Lyndon B. Johnson met with Pearson the next day, he grabbed the much smaller Canadian by his lapels and talked angrily with him for an hour. After this incident, the two men somehow found ways to resolve their differences over the war—in fact, they both had further contacts, including later twice meeting in Canada. Canada's official diplomatic position in relation to the Vietnam War was that of a non-belligerent, which imposed a ban on the export of war-related items"
"basking in peace and prosperity, the voters gave McKinley an even larger victory than that which he had achieved in 1896. After the campaign, Roosevelt took office as vice president in March 1901. The office of Vice President was a powerless sinecure and did not suit Roosevelt's aggressive temperament. Roosevelt's six months as Vice President were uneventful, and Roosevelt presided over the Senate for a mere four days before it adjourned. On September 2, 1901, Roosevelt first publicized an aphorism that thrilled his supporters at the Minnesota State Fair: ""Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go"
"I must confess, without any disguise, that the prevalence of those two odious practices of chewing and expectorating began about this time to be anything but agreeable, and soon became most offensive and sickening. In Washington, D.C., he called upon President John Tyler in the White House, writing that: ...he looked somewhat worn and anxious, and well he might; being at war with everybody – but the expression of his face was mild and pleasant, and his manner was remarkably unaffected, gentlemanly, and agreeable. I thought that in his whole carriage and demeanour, he became his station singularly well. Although"
"and then left Congress not to debate the canal, but to debate me."" Several parties in the United States called this an act of war on Colombia: The ""New York Times"" described the support given by the United States to Bunau-Varilla as an ""act of sordid conquest."" The ""New York Evening Post"" called it a ""vulgar and mercenary venture."" The US maneuvers are often cited as the classic example of US gunboat diplomacy in Latin America, and the best illustration of what Roosevelt meant by the old African adage, ""Speak softly and carry a big stick [and] you will go"
"into one of the best known senators in the nation. Roosevelt considered Long a radical demagogue. The president privately said of Long that along with General Douglas MacArthur, ""He was one of the two most dangerous men in America."" In June 1933, Long visited the White House to meet President Roosevelt, but the meeting was a disaster: Long was flagrantly disrespectful, refusing to take off his straw hat and addressing Roosevelt as ""Frank"", instead of the normal ""Mr. President"". Shortly thereafter, in June 1933, in an effort to undermine Long's political dominance, Roosevelt cut Long out of consultation on the"
"Giant sucking sound The ""giant sucking sound"" was United States presidential candidate Ross Perot's phrase for what he believed would be the negative effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which he opposed. The phrase, which Perot coined during the 1992 US presidential campaign, referred to the sound of US jobs heading south for Mexico should the NAFTA, the proposed so-called free-trade agreement, go into effect. In the second 1992 Presidential Debate, Ross Perot argued: Perot ultimately lost the election, and the winner, Bill Clinton, supported NAFTA, which went into effect on January 1, 1994. The phrase has"
"Bloviation Bloviation is a style of empty, pompous political speech popularized by United States President Warren G. Harding, who, himself a master of the technique, described it as ""the art of speaking for as long as the occasion warrants, and saying nothing"". The verb ""to bloviate"" is the act of creating bloviation. In terms of its etymology, according to one source, the word is a ""compound of blow, in its sense of 'to boast' (also in another typical Americanism, ""blowhard""), with a mock-Latin ending to give it the self-important stature implicit in its meaning."" ""Bloviation"" in Ohio originally meant idle"
"example, was a master of the personal insult. He got his nickname from a speech in which he called President Grover Cleveland ""an old bag of beef"" and resolved to bring a pitchfork to Washington to ""poke him in his old fat ribs."" James Kimble Vardaman consistently referred to President Theodore Roosevelt as a ""coon-flavored miscegenationist"" and once posted an ad in a newspaper for ""sixteen big, fat, mellow, rancid coons"" to sleep with Roosevelt during a trip to Mississippi. A common demagogic technique is to pin an insulting epithet on an opponent, by saying it repeatedly, in speech after"
"thinks of himself as a ""hard riding, hard drinking Southern gentleman"", he is a front for an army of advisers and fixers who tell him what to say through a wireless earphone. He leads the ""Middle Roaders"", apparently a Republican faction. The opposition are the ""Nationalists"" who favor a sudden first strike, or ""sneak punch"" against the Communists. The Democratic party is despised, being routinely referred to as the ""Party of Treason"". The burning political issue in Congress and the nation is the ""Civilian Shelters Bill"", or ""C.S.B."", a plan to build deep air-raid shelters capable of housing the entire"
"defense policies. Following the 1980 election, with the U.S. Senate controlled by Republicans, O'Neill became the leader of the congressional opposition. O'Neill even went as far as calling Ronald Reagan ""the most ignorant man who had ever occupied the White House"". O'Neill also said that Reagan was ""Herbert Hoover with a smile"" and ""a cheerleader for selfishness."" He also said that Reagan's policies meant that his presidency was ""one big Christmas party for the rich."" Privately, O'Neill and Reagan were always on cordial terms, or as Reagan himself put it in his memoirs, they were friends ""after 6PM"". O'Neill in"
"Bush Doctrine The Bush Doctrine refers to various related foreign policy principles of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. These principles include unilateralism and the use of preventative war. Charles Krauthammer first used the phrase in June 2001 to describe the Bush Administration's ""...unilaterally withdrawing from the ABM treaty and rejecting the Kyoto protocol."" After the 9/11 attack, the phrase described the policy that the United States had the right to secure itself against countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups, which was used to justify the 2001 war in Afghanistan. The Bush Doctrine"
"President Dwight D. Eisenhower. After determining that the speech was authentic, the CIA leaked the speech to ""The New York Times"" in early June. While Khrushchev was not hesitant to point out the flaws in Stalinist practice in regard to the purges of the army and Party and the management of the Great Patriotic War (i.e., the USSR's involvement in World War II), he was very careful to avoid any criticism of Stalin's industrialization policy or Communist Party ideology. Khrushchev was a staunch party man, and he lauded Leninism and Communist ideology in his speech as often as he condemned"
"party unto himself, disagreeing with the Federalists as much as he did the Jeffersonian Republicans. He was often described as ""prickly"", but his tenacity was fed by good decisions made in the face of universal opposition. Adams was often combative, which diminished presidential decorum, as Adams himself admitted in his old age: ""[As president] I refused to suffer in silence. I sighed, sobbed, and groaned, and sometimes screeched and screamed. And I must confess to my shame and sorrow that I sometimes swore."" Adams' resolve to advance peace with France, rather than to continue hostilities, especially reduced his popularity. This"
"dangerous to all concerned."" Stevenson then reported the incident directly to President Eisenhower. At the United Nations Stevenson worked hard to support U.S. foreign policy, even when he personally disagreed with some of President Kennedy's actions. However, he was often seen as an outsider in the Kennedy administration, with one historian noting ""everyone knew that Stevenson's position was that of a bit player."" Kennedy told his adviser Walt Rostow that ""Stevenson wouldn't be happy as president. He thinks that if you talk long enough you get a soft option and there are very few soft options as president."" In April"
"Evil Empire speech The phrase ""evil empire"" was first applied to the Soviet Union in 1983 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who took an aggressive, hard-line stance that favored matching and exceeding the Soviet Union's strategic and global military capabilities, in calling for a rollback strategy that would, in his words, ""write the final pages of the history of the Soviet Union"". The characterization demeaned the Soviet Union and angered Soviet leaders and energized conservatives in the United States and Europe. According to G. Thomas Goodnight, the ""Evil Empire"" speech along with the ""Zero Option"" and ""Star Wars"" speeches represented"
"diplomacy, as used in international politics by imperial powers. Roosevelt (then Governor of New York) to Henry L. Sprague, dated January 26, 1900. Roosevelt wrote, in a bout of happiness after forcing New York's Republican committee to pull support away from a corrupt financial adviser:published in the ""Brooklyn Daily Eagle"" on April 1, 1900, a reporter noted that ""His motto, he says, he has taken from the South African people: 'Speak softly— carry a big stick— and you will go far. Roosevelt would go on to be elected Vice President later that year, and subsequently used the aphorism publicly in"
"pay their debts to European and US banks and business interests. This was also referred to as the Big Stick ideology because of the phrase from president Roosevelt to """"speak low and carry a big stick""."" The Roosevelt corollary provoked outrage across Latin America. The Roosevelt Corollary was invoked to intervene militarily in Latin America to stop the spread of European influence. It was the most significant amendment to the original doctrine and was widely opposed by critics, who argued that the Monroe Doctrine was originally meant to stop European influence in the Americas. They argued that the Corollary simply"
"— I said, 'Please don't be too nice'"", and, ""Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put your hand over. I said, 'You can take the hand away, O.K.?'"" His remarks drew loud applause and laughter. The speech was condemned by law enforcement authorities. Less than two years into his presidency, ABC News found 16 criminal violent cases where alleged perpetrators echoed Trump's rhetoric as president. ABC News found no such cases during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Trump has issued a number of"
"deep isolationism, rejecting international conferences, and focusing moment mostly on reciprocal tariff agreements with smaller countries of Latin America. President Roosevelt tried to avoid repeating what he saw as Woodrow Wilson's mistakes in World War I. He often made exactly the opposite decision. Wilson called for neutrality in thought and deed, while Roosevelt made it clear his administration strongly favored Britain and China. Unlike the loans in World War I, the United States made large-scale grants of military and economic aid to the Allies through Lend-Lease, with little expectation of repayment. Wilson did not greatly expand war production before the"
"been in danger from Soviet assassins for over 13 years, and had to live in safe houses. He refused to answer a question from an NBC reporter, saying ""How can I talk with a drug pusher like you?"" He called the leadership of the United States ""idiotic"" and ""berserk,"" and its foreign policy ""criminal or insane."" He warned of the imminent collapse of the banking system and accused banks of laundering drug money. Asked about the movement's finances, he said ""I don't know. ... I'm not responsible, I'm not involved in that."" In October 1986, hundreds of state and federal"
"a ""tooth-puller"" and an ""Imperial bastard"" and warning of grave consequences should he follow through with his plans. After learning of the potential opposition, Evans cancelled his plans, although he retorted that Long – who based his campaign on Americanist themes – was ""un-American"". In the 1930s, the Klan's public support nearly vanished and their membership dropped to about 100,000 people, primarily concentrated in the South, having lost most of their members in the Midwest and West. At that time, James A. Colescott, Evans' handpicked chief of staff, increasingly shouldered Evans' responsibilities. After the Great Depression further damaged the Klan's"
"and abide it, you are, by your grandfathers' standards, cowards. During a speech at Brandeis University, he stated, ""Political correctness is tyranny with manners"". In a speech to the National Press Club in 1997, Heston said, ""Now, I doubt any of you would prefer a rolled up newspaper as a weapon against a dictator or a criminal intruder."" Heston was the president (a largely ceremonial position) and spokesman of the NRA from 1998 until he resigned in 2003. At the 2000 NRA convention, he raised a rifle over his head and declared that a potential Al Gore administration would take"
"Adams deemed even ""Highness"" insufficient and instead proposed that the Executive, both the President and the Vice President (i.e., himself), be styled ""Majesty"", with only which the ""great danger"" of insufficient dignity being attached to the executive could be solved. Adams' efforts were met with widespread derision and perplexion; Thomas Jefferson called them ""the most superlatively ridiculous thing I ever heard of"", while Benjamin Franklin considered it ""absolutely mad"". The proposal came to naught, and American Presidents, from Washington onwards, have eschewed honorific titles and styles altogether and are simply referred to as ""Mr. President"". In modern-day Samoa, the O"
"Congress passed a formal declaration of war against Japan and officially brought the U.S. into World War II. The address is one of the most famous of all American political speeches. The Infamy Speech was brief, running to just a little over seven minutes. Secretary of State Cordell Hull had recommended that the President devote more time to a fuller exposition of Japanese-American relations and the lengthy, but unsuccessful, effort to find a peaceful solution. However, Roosevelt kept the speech short in the belief that it would have a more dramatic effect. His revised statement was all the stronger for"
"Great Satan The Great Satan (; ""Shaytân-e Bozorg"", ""Shaytân-e Kabir"") is a derogatory epithet for the United States of America in some Iranian foreign policy statements. Occasionally, these words have also been used toward the government of the United Kingdom. The term was originally used by Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini in his speech on November 5, 1979 to describe the United States, which he accused of imperialism and the sponsoring of corruption throughout the world. The speech occurred one day after the onset of the Iran hostage crisis. Ayatollah Khomeini also occasionally used the term ""Iblis"" (the primary devil in"
"which Washington announced his decision to step down from the presidency (due in part to his increasing weariness with public life), he included a short passage defending his policy of ignoring French requests for American assistance. In an attempt to keep his remarks apolitical, Washington defended his policy by framing it as generic guidance for the future and did not mention the French by name: However, in private correspondence about his address Washington wrote that the geopolitical situation inspiring his advice would disappear in ""not ... probably more than twenty years"". The rise of Napoleon Bonaparte in France muted the"
"copies of the novel to every U.S. senator because its message was so important."" President Lyndon Baines Johnson made reference to the term Ugly American in his Great Society speech to a 1964 university graduating class, and it was by then used as a pejorative expression for generally offensive behavior by Americans abroad. Senator Hubert Humphrey first introduced a bill in Congress in 1957 for the formation of a Peace Corps aimed primarily at development in the Third World, but ""it did not meet with much enthusiasm"" and the effort failed. The ""Ugly American"" was published the following year. Senator"
"his famous Cooper Union speech: [W]hen you speak of us Republicans, you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. You will grant a hearing to pirates or murderers, but nothing like it to ""Black Republicans."" [...] But you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ""Stand"
"3 September 2007. President Barack Obama, in addition to handing challenge coins to U.S. service members, would leave coins on the memorial graves of dead soldiers. Not all of his coin exchanges went smoothly; in 2012 he attempted to hand it off to Sergeant Kristie Ness who dropped it. Obama picked it up, afterwards they both laughed it off. President Donald Trump's coin broke with tradition, omitting the presidential seal, the motto ""E pluribus unum"" and the thirteen arrows representing the thirteen original states. His campaign slogan ""Make America Great Again"" appears on both sides. It features a banner at"
"public criticism of pacifism and isolationism, made him unpopular with the Roosevelt administration. Perhaps the most incendiary exchange between Roosevelt and MacArthur occurred over an administration proposal to cut 51% of the Army's budget. In response, MacArthur lectured Roosevelt that ""when we lost the next war, and an American boy, lying in the mud with an enemy bayonet through his belly and an enemy foot on his dying throat, spat out his last curse, I wanted the name not to be MacArthur, but Roosevelt"". In response, Roosevelt yelled ""you must not talk that way to the President!"" MacArthur offered to"
"manner, and to prosecute it further under the idea of the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens], as a war waged against the Confederate States as an independent nation, for the purpose of conquest and subjugation, as he proposes, and the Administration is in truth and in fact doing, I am equally opposed. Long's April 8 speech firmly cemented his opprobrious label of ""Copperhead""; thereafter, Long was seen as one of the chief leaders of that group: the ""peace wing of the Democratic Party."" Long's speech was immediately and roundly denounced by several congressmen including Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax"