Anna Louise Strong Quotes
Having no diplomatic representation in Washington, China has no sources which allow her to check the character of applicants and therefore makes the practice of refusing everybody from the United States.
Strong, Anna Louise. Letter. c. 1965. Quoted in Right in Her Soul: The Life of Anna Louise Strong, by Tracy B. Strong and Helene Keyssar, Random House, 1983.
In 1904 the Archduchess of Austria was visiting the Adriatic port of Fiume where hundreds of immigrants to America were waiting to board the ship. The nobility of the time found amusement in the poor immigrants boarding with their meager possessions and poor clothes. The Archduchess wanted the people to board 3 days early so she could watch the spectacle before she left. They would then have to stay in the steerage of the ship for 3 extra days. The American consul refused to issue the necessary papers until just before the sailing:
In 1983 in the wake of the Korean airliner shootdown, there were diplomatic arguments of landing rights in New York for Russian U. N. diplomats. This prompted some U. N. member nations to call for the removal of the U. N. from New York:
The highest court in New York.
Diplomatic recognition of the People’s Republic of China was being debated. Many of Churchill’s Conservative Party Colleagues were opposed on the grounds that diplomatic relations gives a signal of legitimacy. In the U. S. this general issue is a constant source of political controversy when diplomatic relations and talks are considered with Iran, Cuba and North Korea.
There have been times in democracies where a foreign ministry (State Department) is isolated from the elected politicians and implements a foreign policy that is at odds with the wishes of the elected officials and the majority of the nation. A good American example of this was in 1948 where America had to decide whether to support the creation of the State of Israel in the United Nations and through diplomatic recognition. The professional diplomats in the State Department had developed very close relations with Arab States, and many State Department employees were anti-Semitic. In addition, they thought the most important thing for America was not to risk the Arab oil supply. Meanwhile, the people, Congress, and President Truman were on the other side and Truman had to finally order The Secretary of State to stop his professional diplomats from pursuing their own foreign policy preferences. Even then some did not.
Although, on sever occasions Mao tried to reach out to the United States, the fact that he was leading a communist movement and Chiang Kai-shek, our recognized ruler of China hated Mao caused his overtures to be rebuffed. American military leaders knew very little about China and our intelligence was almost non-existent. They assumed that he was under the control of Russia and Joseph Stalin when in fact, the Russians wanted to oust Mao for not following Stalin’s communist orthodoxy. They succeeded in firing him as head of the party and replacing him with a committee of more loyal communists. Not only did the US rebuff Mau’s outreach attempts, but American money and military material financed 6 different military campaigns by Chiang to exterminate Mao and his communists.
None succeeded as the vast majority of the peasants supported Mao and his troops and provided support and information in Chiang’s attempts. Some historians believe we “bet on the wrong horse”.
Anna Louise Strong was an American journalist and activist, best known for her reporting on and support for communist movements in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. She wrote over 30 books and varied articles.
