Negotiation, Negotiations, Negotiators Quotes
He was exactly right. Two decades later Germany had started WWII.
This quotation is noteworthy because it is typical with every politically extremist group. Negotiation and compromise are unacceptable and even dangerous to them. Almost a century after this quotation the Tea Party was making the same kind of statements.
Most Americans do not realize that our naval forces were disbanded after the Revolution and even the Constitution did not require a navy. We had some Federal revenue cutters to interdict smugglers but no warships and no permanent sailors or officers. The Barbary Pirates had an incredible extortion racket going in the Mediterranean. If nations would pay them an annual sum each year, they would not attack and seize merchant ships of that country and sell the ships and goods while holding the sailors for ransom. See {640850},86703,{640846} & {640848}
Although Reagan is reported to have said this on numerous occasions, no definitive citation has yet been found. The earliest reference to a similar quote is found in “The Consent of the Governed, and Other Deceits” (1971) by New York Times political analyst Arthur Krock in the chapter titled "The Second Oldest Profession.”
King Richard was the leader of all the Christian forces in the Holy Land for the Crusade. See related quote for King Richard's initial peace proposal message.
The British Ambassador was having difficulty determining whom to negotiate with regarding a tax treaty:
Nixon staff assistant Chuck Coulson used a variant of this quotation. See {628753}.
Both Hitler and Stalin were gross egomaniacs who each thought that they had gotten the better of things. The result was that 22 million Russians were killed and the industrial base if Russia Was destroyed. On the German side, the German military was virtually destroyed, many civilians were killed, the nation reduced to rubble and starvation, German leaders were killed, jailed or committed suicide including Hitler, and the country was occupied for years. Neither leader appeared very smart if one judges by the results.
This was in response to English Emissaries who wanted to establish trading businesses in China. The Emperor would not even meet personally with Lord McCartney, the first British envoy because McCartney would not kow-tow to the Emperor. The “hongs” were special businesses set up by Chinese businessmen who had paid the Proper fee, for the purposes of being traders with foreigners. Canton, now Guangzhou, is 150 years later still the major international trading center in China although there are no longer restrictions. At the time, the British paid for their Chinese good with Opium that they had purchased in their Indian Colony. English cloth and other goods would be sent to India, traded for opium, which was brought to China and traded for tea, silks and porcelain which were returned to England and turned into cash than was worth much more than their original purchase and the cost of the voyage.
He was a realist who wanted to sue for peace before Germany was destroyed.
