Friday, July 6, 2012

Shrimp Fork Diplomacy

Breaches of protocol can have more of an impact when they play into a larger narrative. When Franklin D. Roosevelt hosted King Saud of Saudi Arabia on an American warship in 1945, the chain-smoking president refrained from lighting up in front of the anti-smoking king. (Roosevelt did, however, push an elevator emergency stop button to give himself enough time to smoke two cigarettes between meetings.) The pair got along so well that Saud declared them twin brothers. Winston Churchill took a different approach. When told that Saud opposed vices such as strong drink on religious grounds, Churchill replied, ?My religion prescribed as an absolute sacred rite smoking cigars and drinking alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and the intervals between them.? Churchill?s smoking and drinking probably didn?t significantly damage Anglo-Saudi relations?Saudi Arabia was already looking to FDR to counterbalance British influence in the region?but his imperiousness reinforced Saud?s low opinion of the fading colonial power.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=57dc42eb40ac5bb592169d9ef410211c

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