Foreign Ministries, Foreign Ministers Quotes
In his early years, Stalin was a strong opponent of Anti-Semitism ({627514}) but he felt he needed to make a pact with Nazi Germany—the Hitler-Stalin Pact. In meeting with Nazi Foreign Minister Ribbontrop, Stalin as a quid pro quo promised to get rid of “Jewish Domination” (which never existed but there were many Jews in positions) among officials and intellectuals. He then fired his Jewish Foreign Minister Litvonof and replaced him with Vyacheslav Molotov to whom he have this instruction. This was the first major official Anti-Semitism of the Soviet Union but it continued thereafter. See {636526} & {636527}.
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. The Bolsheviks had all they could do to solidify their revolution and try and manage the basic needs of food and the economy. There was little thinking about foreign policy or Russia’s role in the world at this time.
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.
3rd Viscount Palmerston. Lajos Kossuth was the Hungarian leader of anti-monarchists who were agitating for a Parliament. While many English people sympathized with Kossuth, his government, which had good relations with England, did not want any of the other European Governments to officially meet with him. It was considered insulting to a government if a friendly government met officially with a politician who was not approved by his own government. Palmerston, as Temple was referred to, wanted to show English sympathy with the reforms advocated by Kossuth. He was then the Foreign Minister and wanted to invite Kossuth to the Foreign Ministry. However the Cabinet had a meeting and voted against the idea which would not only inflame the Hungarian government, but would outrage all the other countries in Europe for this diplomatic insult. Palmerston then decided that he would meet with Kossuth in his private residence. When the Prime Minister discovered this plan, he sent a note by messenger telling Palmerston that he was the Foreign Minister and inviting Kossuth to his home could not be seen as an official action. Palmerston has his own political base and had enough supporters in Parliament that if he would be fired, he could bring down the coalition government. So in effect he told his Prime Minister off and dared Russell to fire Palmerston. Then he went ahead with the meeting. The cabinet was upset, Queen Victoria was outraged (she never cared for Palmerson as a Foreign Minister), the Newspapers had a field day, and all the European counties complained vehemently to the Queen and the Prime Minister. But Russell didn’t dare fire Palmerston at that point. However, with Queen Victoria’s shrewd political maneuvering and Russell coalescing support, he was able to demote Palmerson to Home Secretary and assume the Foreign Ministry himself in 1952. However, Palmerston had the final winning hand, when 3 years later, he was elected Prime Minister and he and the Queen had to make a rapprochement.
The United States has often staffed its foreign mission with foreigners to save money or obtain specific skills.
Russia was the only source of arms for the beleaguered Republicans. Stalin used that position to dictate policies to the Spanish Republicans and sent his ambassador to relay his demands to the Spanish Prime Minister. Largos Caballero would not even let him see the Prime Minister. Although this behavior was extremely impractical and hurt the Republican cause, the Prime Minister and just about all the Republicans agreed with the Ministers reaction.
In a famous debate with Congressman Henry De La Flood (Democrat, VA), the issue was the common practice of hiring foreign nationals to represent the United States in many foreign posts, since their services could be obtained much less expensively than the costs of sending Americans abroad:. See President Millard Fillmore's 1856 campaign speech.
All ambassadors and diplomats and their offices were representatives of the Emperor – the “Son of Heaven” – who could not possibly have any relations with “barbarians”. The result was that China had no real foreign office or State Department.
Lord Palmerston, John Henry Temple, had been the Foreign Minister. He had a style which like President George W. Bush, was perceived by foreign governments to be condescending and insulting. His policies were generally in line with the Prime Minister’s desires and the Queen’s but he was involved with one negative incident after another. England had sunk to it’s lowest public opinion assessment European had seen in years. The Queen was very distressed. Palmerstone a very senior and popular politician with a great deal of experience resented this young girl micromanaging his policies and statements. On several occasions he went ahead with a policy “forgetting” to clear it with the Queen in advance. To the degree the Queen had a political enemy, Palmerston was it. He controlled an important bloc of Prime Minister John Russell’s narrowly ruling party. When the Queen talked to the Prime Minister about firing the Foreign Secretary, Russell always pointed out that while there were ample grounds for firing, pragmatically he might not be able to hold a majority without the Foreign Secretary in the Cabinet. The Queen had great respect for Russell and did not wish the government to be in a crises so she repeatedly put up with Palmerston’s gaffs and insult. After a few years the political situation changed and Palmerston was no longer critical to the government and at his next incident the Prime Minister and the Queen agreed to terminate the Foreign Secretary. The quotation shows the Queen wanting the Prime minister to avoid embarrassing the man who had vexed her for several years. She was very “lady-like” and showed no interest in payback or vengeance. Many historians argue that if she were a male king, Palmerston would have been gone long before regardless of the cost as he had challenged the monarch. However, perhaps a female national leader does not have the instinct from the rutting male mammals that men seem to show when they deal with rivals. Palmerston was eased out of office with great praise and thanks from the Prime Minister and the Queen.
