Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes
When you sit around with a Britisher, he usually gets 80 percent of the deal
FDR was not always pro-British as many conservative opponents claimed. He was actually quite suspicious of the British though his concerns evaporated with the crisis of the rise of Hitler and WWII.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1882-1945, 32nd President of the United States (Democrat, NY), Remark to his friend Henry Morgenthau ~1920
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The “different character” has local and national variations throughout the Middle East including Arabs and Persians. This affects speeches, public statements, and press releases. To Americans and Europeans it appears to be lying or self-delusion in the speakers part. And when this different character translates to the written word in newspapers or books, it is even more difficult to label and understand.
The great European powers were attending an International Congress—Summit Meeting of the heads of government and their diplomats to deal with the crisis of Tsarist Russian military expansionism. None of the other European powers of the time wanted or could afford war so Russia could only be thwarted by Great Britain. There were many in England who thought that the British should not even attend and should send troops immediately. The Queen and the Royal Family were among those. At the Congress Disraeli, who had much personal affection for Queen Victoria, wanted to reassure her. 1st Earl of Beaconsfield. If the Congress did not succeed the mainland of Europe would have been at war. Disraeli obtained everything England wanted. See Russian Ambassador Prince Gortchakoff’s observation.
They were both children of Queen Victoria of England.
Rome & the Roman Catholic Church Islam, led by the Ottoman Turks, were in a constant state of tension against the Christian World of Europe. However there had been a huge schism in Christianity where the Christian Roman Empire was split in two—a Western (Latin) Empire led by the Roman Catholic Church in Rome, and the Eastern (Greek) Roman Empire led by the Orthodox Church headquartered in Constantinople (Byzantium). The two churches were not only in a theological conflict but violence broke out and the armies of the two religious empires attacked each other now and then. This was a great advantage to the Muslims who were essentially unified under the Ottoman Turkish Sultan. Manuel knew that the reunification of Christianity was about the worst thing that could happen from the geopolitical view of the Ottomans and they always placed a high priority on doing whatever they could to magnify the stress between the two Christian empires. Manual and the Orthodox hierarchy were absolutely opposed to union as the schism had been precipitated by them to begin with. However, Manuel knew that the hatred of the East and the Orthodox Church was so great amongst the Latins that even if some of the Roman Catholic leadership might be interested in healing the schism and having a “unity in Christ”, the kings and nobles of the Western European nations would never accept unity and would scuttle the negotiations. This quotation is an excellent example of the kind of complex, foreign policy and political intriguing that caused our language to have an adjective—byzantine—which is in common use today.
Some people believe that the United States pressured Pakistan to enable America to support the Mujahideen in their effort to fight the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Actually the President (and virtual dictator) of Pakistan wanted aid from America and was offering bases. America did not want bases but did want a platform for arming and training the Mujahideen, Pakistan allowed us to use Pakistan as a platform. We increased our foreign aid to Pakistan by 500 percent. There was no arm twisting.
The President was spending all day and most of the evening with Japanese and Russian negotiators. He was trying to mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War. Despite all the difficulties, Roosevelt found a new skill of personal international diplomacy. The war seemed intractable, but Roosevelt was able to get a peace treaty signed for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It is doubtful that any modern president could spend so much concentrated time on an issue that was really not in the national interest of the United States. However, Roosevelt’s time and effort investment paid off in that by settling that dispute and getting nothing out of it for America or American business, the United States was in world opinion, elevated to a new status of fair, impartial and non-selfish international activity—a model that despite some lapses in later years, the United States has been unique.
In dos nations there are people who will reject any negotiated deal in which they do not get everything that they want. Some even will characterize the deal as a sellout or treason. But to be successful the diplomats from both sides must feel that they have gotten enough so that they can persuade their countrymen and political authorities that the nation has gotten enough to make the deal worth while.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A member of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended shortly after he died in office.
