Joseph Roth Quotes

Some scholars believe that it was Henry Cabot Lodge to whom he made this remark.

Asked why the Europeans were not supporting American efforts to stop the atrocities in Bosnia:

Attila the Hun. If countries formed alliances against him, he took it as a sign of weakness and allies were cowards because they were afraid to fight alone.

He was right and his leading just a few American marines and capturing much of the area proved it.

China had not strengthened is military as Empress Cixi had desired--{641697}. The result was a very weak country that other nations took advantage of and bullied their way to the most extraordinary concessions. This in turn, made the foreign diplomats lose respect for the Chinese officials with whom they dealt and many were treated with disrespect and abuse—like servants. This outraged influential, traditional, conservatives like Weng and began to develop the foundation of the anti-Western Boxer Movement in China.

German ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had declared war on Serbia. See {642085}. The Russian Czar was under great pressure because a large Roman Catholic Empire was warring against a small Orthodox co-religionist of Russia and Russians of all classes wanted Russia to defend Serbia. The Czar was making a good faith effort to stave off the war. What he did not realize was that Germany had actually planned for war against Russia and France and was using the alliance with Austria as an excuse.

The “bozos” beat him and won the Presidency. And then conducted a very successful foreign policy for 8 years.

This is an example of a diplomatic leader losing control of herself and addressing a foreign dignitary in most undiplomatic language. The basic accusation was however quite justified. The Palestinians were preoccupied with many symbols of dignity and respect while ignoring economic development, technology, health and standard of living that could have been obtained by a compromise with Israel to create a Palestinian state.

“Hapsburg” was the family name of the Emperors of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As typical of a heredity absolute monarchy, it was accompanied by a heredity aristocracy from which all the generals and senior officers of the military were selected. Their social graces and skills were assured but not their capability as leaders of any kind—especially military officers.

He was a Senator from Pennsylvania when he made this remark.

He became furious when the Pole had visited his country and there were so many people who anted to see the Pope that Manila traffic was totally jammed and gridlocked. This quote was the President’s reaction to the snarled traffic.

He was leading the Gordon Highlanders of the British Army against the Boers during the Boer War. He was seriously wounded and could not go on himself with a charge he had ordered, However, waifing his sword he made this famous qutation. Particualrly noteorthy is the derrogatory terms which he used to describe the enemy--the Boers of South Africa. In many wars and cultures, one or more of the combatants, in order to overcome the avarage soldier's reluctance to kill an enemy, characterizes them as less than human. In this case, vermin, who were to be exterminated. There were two predominant groups of whites who came to South Africa, the English who were generally well-educated and were interested in trading with the exhisting inhabitants and investing in businesses using mostly native labot and the Boers. The latter were of Dutch and German origin, poor farmers with little or no land in the home country and little education. Their interest was to create a nation where they could own land to farm. And the lest expensive way for them to increase their farmland was to sieze it from the native Blacks and who were the major forces behind the racial discrimination which became apartheid. The British contolled the government and sought stability and as in most of the British Empire, they wanted English law to prevail including the rights of the Black natives. The Boers had left Europe for good and would thrive or not in Southern Africa. Proportiopnately, the English might have a career in South Africa or serve there for a few years. They were Englishmen in a foreign country. The Boers saw themselves as citizens of Southern Africa who were fighting the native Blacks for control of the land. The English legal system would not allow any of the land seizures and political discrimination that the Boers saw as existential for their survival in Africa. Soon, the Boers took more and more of the law into their own hands and saw English rule and dmination as inimical to their interests in Africa and they tried to create their own independent states in Southern Africa. That was the essense of the Boer Wars. Dick-Cunyngham was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration of Great Britain, for his exploits in the Afghan War.