Daniel Fried Quotes
We intend to leave it without further discussion. We respect this request by the government of Uzbekistan
Fried, Daniel. Press Conference. Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 27 Sept. 2005.
There is one condition for us to have healthy relations with the United States. It's called respect.
This is an old and critical concept in American relations with the rest of the hemisphere which Simon Bolivar used to refer to as “respecto.” Americans tend to be relatively unconcerned by what other nations think of America, and since the US has been so successful, it has developed a strong national ego. Other nations, not so successful in modern times, tend to place a great deal of importance on the notion of respect. It is a major factor in most of the world.
The sentence was actually drafted by Secretary of State William H. Seward.
He had just returned from a trip abroad.
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.
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”.
Daniel Fried (born 1952) is an American diplomat, who served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from 2005 to 2009, and as United States Ambassador to Poland from 1997 to 2000. He also served as a Special Envoy to facilitate the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Cuba, and as a co-ordinator for United States embargoes. Fried retired from the State Department in February 2017, after forty years of service.
