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USDiplomaticHistory This is a research and reference page to capture current photos, news, and postings in the field of U.S. Diplomatic History, a.k.a.

American Foreign Relations History, a.k.a. History of America and the World.

16/04/2022
20/11/2020
18/10/2020
19/09/2020

Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice signs official papers after receiving the oath of office during her ceremonial swearing in by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Dept. of State, 1/28/05. Photo by Eric Draper.


March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020

15/09/2020

There is still time to sign up for tomorrow’s talk with our Library Director Duke Blackwood and National Archives Foundation Executive Director Patrick Madden on the life and legacy of Ronald Reagan.

RSVP below, the event starts at 5 pm ET

https://archivesfoundation.org/event/presidential-library-series-reagan/

—
President Reagan at a Reagan-Bush Rally in Endicott, New York 09/12/1984

08/09/2020

President and Mrs. Bush visit with President and Mrs. Vicente Fox on the Truman Balcony at the first state dinner held by the Bush administration, September 6, 2001.

“This is not only a state dinner, it’s like a family gathering. The most important ties between your country and mine, Mr. President, go beyond economics and politics and geography. They are the ties of , , and . This is true for millions of and , including my own...We have before us a great prospect, an era of prosperity in a hemisphere of liberty. In this task, our cooperation is broad and unprecedented; our sense of trust is strong, and it is growing.”
- President George W. Bush

Hosting President and Mrs. Fox of Mexico for their first state dinner, President and Mrs. Bush served a soup of Maryland crab and chorizo, pumpkin seed crusted bison with whipped potatoes and a vegetable ragout, a gold and red tomato salad, and a dessert of mango and coconut ice cream with fruit. The meal was served on the Clinton china service.

Among the 136 guests were Clint Eastwood, Placido Domingo, Emilio Estefan, NFL player Darrell Green, and NBA player Eduardo Najera--as well as Secretary of State Colin Powell, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and Senators John McCain and Tom Daschle.

The after-dinner entertainment included soprano Dawn Upshaw performing American and Mexican songs in the East Room. The finale of the evening was a fireworks show; guests could watch from the Blue Room balcony as the Zambelli company launched fireworks from the Ellipse.

08/09/2020

“Mexico is the first country I visited as President. Today it is my privilege to welcome President Fox for the first state visit of my administration. This is a recognition that the United States has no more important relationship in the world than the one we have with Mexico. The starting point of a sound foreign policy is to build a stable and prosperous neighborhood, with good relations amongst neighbors. Good neighbors work together and benefit from each other’s successes...Now we look forward. We have a chance to build a century of the Americas, in which all our people, North and South, find the blessings of liberty. This goal is worthy of our two great nations.”
- President George W. Bush, September 5, 2001

In the first state visit of his administration, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush welcome President Vicente Fox and First Lady of Marta Sahagun de Fox to the White House.

04/09/2020
10/08/2020

President Bush sits at his desk in the Oval Office Study and talks on the telephone regarding Operation Just Cause in Panama, as Gen. Scowcroft and Gov. Sununu stand nearby. 20 December 1989 Photo Credit: George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

09/08/2020

President Bush gives a press conference discussing Iraq and the situation in the Middle East on the South Lawn of the White House. Robert Gates, Gov. Sununu, Gen. Scowcroft, and Marlin Fitzwater stand near. 04 January 1991

08/08/2020

President Bush holds meetings with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at Camp David. L to R: Secretary James Baker, Mrs. Bush, President Bush, Mrs. Gorbachev, President Gorbachev, Eduard Shevardnadze, General Brent Scowcroft, Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev. 2 June 1990

04/08/2020

in 1991 President Bush and President Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), Moscow, Soviet Union. Photo Credit: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

04/08/2020

8/4/1970 President Nixon, First Lady Pat Nixon, President Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, and First Lady Marie-Antoinette Mobutu during the arrival ceremony for President Mobutu of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. President Mobutu changed his country's name to Zaire and his own name to Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, commonly Mobutu Sese Seko. He took power in a 1965 military coup and remained president until 1997. Mobutu died in exile in Morocco a few months after leaving office. (Image: WHPO-4060-07A)

23/07/2020

On this day in 1945, the seventh meeting of the heads of state took place at Potsdam. President Truman, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Generalissimo Josef Stalin posed for this triple-handshake photo. Want to see what they discussed at their meeting? You can find the meeting minutes here: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/134405471

17/07/2020
02/07/2020
28/06/2020

“When Mrs. Velaso and I visited badly hurt areas, I was impressed with her deep concern and compassion for her people. We brought supplies at that time, and also brought hope to them that we were going to work for reconstruction of their homes and rehabilitation.” -Pat Nixon

In 1970 there was a massive earthquake in Peru, which took the lives of 80,000 Peruvians and left another 80,000 homeless. In response to the devastation, Pat Nixon launched humanitarian relief efforts. She gathered about ten tons of donations before flying to Peru, where she saw the damage firsthand. She visited hospitals, relief centers and the hardest hit disaster areas. The image below shows First Lady Nixon with Peru’s First Lady Consuelo Velaso, as they inspect earthquake damage and collapsed buildings in a Huascaran mountain area village. First Lady Nixon was later awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun by the President of Peru. This honor is the highest and oldest historic medal that Peru, and South America, bestows for valor.

Read more about First Lady Nixon's efforts in Peru on the Richard Nixon Foundation website: https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2014/06/pat-nixon-launches-humanitarian-effort-peru/

24/06/2020
19/06/2020

40 years ago today, King Hussein of Jordan warned the key to peace in the Middle East was resolving "the Palestinian problem, which would give the people of Palestine their legitimate rights on their soil, rights of self-determination, rights to express themselves and forge their future, with all confidence that their desire and yearning is for peace, a life of dignity and peace and security." The King met with President Carter to discuss relieving tensions in the Middle East. You can read their comments at https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/visit-king-hussein-jordan-remarks-following-meeting

03/06/2020

This week in 1977, (just five months into becoming First Lady) Rosalynn Carter was at the start of a 13 day tour of 7 Latin American and Caribbean nations. As the New York Times reported "there was widespread skepticism that it could produce any positive results." Yet by the end of the trip, the Times reported "Mrs. Carter has achieved a personal and diplomatic success that goes far beyond the modest expectations of both her foreign policy tutors at the State Department and her hosts."

28/05/2020

Today in 1867 Pres. Andrew Johnson signed the treaty to purchase from ; the Senate had approved it April 9. Sec. of State William Seward (PC: ) was criticized for his negotiation of the treaty until gold was discovered in the in 1896.

26/05/2020

President Carter signing the Treaty of Tlatelolco which makes Latin America a nuclear weapons free zone.

25/05/2020

On May 22, 1972, President Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit Moscow and, behind President Franklin Roosevelt, the second U.S. president to visit the Soviet Union.

President Nixon had previously visited Moscow during his tenure as vice president in 1959, touring the capital and attending the U.S. Trade and Cultural Fair in Sokolniki Park. During this trip, the infamous “Kitchen Debate” exchanges between Vice President Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev took place.

During this trip, now known as the 1972 Moscow Summit, President Nixon met with several Soviet officials, including General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and Premier Alexei Kosygin, to negotiate agreements on arms limitations, the environment, and space. On May 24, President Nixon and Premier Kosygin signed the Agreement Concerning Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes (captured in this photograph), paving the way for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.

On May 26, President Nixon and General Secretary Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), limiting the United States and the Soviet Union to 200 antiballistic missiles each, which were divided between two defensive systems; and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which restricted both sides to only two sites for anti-ballistic missiles and 100 missiles each.

President Nixon’s visit to Moscow was a step toward peacemaking between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and demonstrated that the two nations could come together and produce substantive results through diplomacy.

Image Credit: Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum / NARA

07/05/2020

“The United Kingdom has written many of the greatest chapters in the history of human freedom. Nearly 800 years ago, the Magna Carta placed the authority of the government under the rule of law. Eighty years later, the first representative assembly of the English people met to debate public policies. Over the centuries, parliaments in Britain established principles that guide all modern democracies. And thinkers from Britain, like Locke and Smith and Burke showed the world that freedom was the natural right of every man, woman and child on Earth.

As liberty expanded in the British Isles, British explorers helped spread liberty to many lands, including our own. In May of 1607, a group of pioneers arrived on the shores of the James River, and founded the first permanent English settlement in North America. The settlers at Jamestown planted the seeds of freedom and democracy on American soil. And from those seeds sprung a nation that will always be proud to trace its roots back to our friends across the Atlantic.

Our two nations hold fundamental values in common. We honor our traditions and our shared history. We recognize that the strongest societies respect the rights and dignity of the individual. We understand and accept the burdens of global leadership. And we have built our special relationship on the surest foundations -- our deep and abiding love of liberty.”
- President George W. Bush

President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush wave to an audience of 7,000 guests during the Arrival Ceremony for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, May 7, 2007.

White House photo by David Bohrer

30/04/2020

On this day in 1980, President Carter named Senator Ed Muskie to be the new Secretary of State after Cyrus Vance resigned in protest to the failed Iran hostage rescue attempt.
Muskie once said something that still rings true....“there are only two types of politics. They are not radical or reactionary, or conservative and liberal, or even Democratic or Republican. They are only the politics of fear, and the politics of trust.”
Photo: (Bill Fitzpatrick/The White House, courtesy Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

10/04/2020
10/04/2020
04/04/2020
22/03/2020

Here, President Jimmy Carter stands with White House Social Secretary Gretchen Poston and White House Executive Chef Henry Haller to inspect preparations for a State Dinner held on May 2, 1979, in honor of Prime Minister Masayoshi Ōhira of Japan.

The menu choices for the dinner were unusual. Prior to the dinner, Poston discovered that the Japanese Prime Minister had long desired to sample American-style barbeque. As a result, the White House chefs set about creating a menu with several types of meats including suckling pig, roast buffalo, and barbequed chicken.

Aside from the delightful barbeque theme, the dinner also produced important diplomatic agreements. After President Carter greeted Prime Minister Ōhira during the customary Arrival Ceremony on the White House South Lawn, the pair proceeded into the White House for private discussions.

At the time, the two nations were involved in a trade dispute primarily based upon a Japanese trade surplus. Previous negotiations between the countries had failed, and officials hoped the White House meeting would help resolve lingering issues to preserve the close relationship between Japan and the United States.

At 3:45 p.m., Associate Press Secretary Jerrold Schecter read an announcement to reporters, stating a number of trade issues discussed in the meeting and their resolutions. The meeting was successful, and the president and prime minister went into the dinner portion of the evening in good spirits, having taken steps toward resolving the trade dispute.

President Carter later wrote of the meeting, “Prime Minister Ohira and I had what all of us agreed was one of the most productive diplomatic sessions of our administration.”

The dinner was held on the West Terrace of the White House and guests included 1979 Boston Marathon winners Bill Rogers and Joan Benoit, and movie director Francis Ford Coppola. Pianist Bobby Short provided the evening’s entertainment.

During the dinner, President Carter delivered a toast to the Japanese Prime Minister: “We have a great future together . . . When we have differences which are profound and of great importance, we are absolutely dedicated to resolving those differences without delay.”

The prime minister responded with his own toast: “I am eager to work to make the Japanese-American partnership a more powerful and productive force for the progress of the world community toward a more stable peace and a more widely shared prosperity.”

Image Credit: Courtesy of Henry & Carole Haller and Family

15/03/2020

This week marks 58 years since First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy began her goodwill tour of India and Pakistan. Join us over the next 12 days as we retrace her visit to landmarks in both countries!
⁣
March 12, 1962: Upon her arrival in the city, Prime Minister Nehru presented the first lady with ceremonial welcome necklaces.

27/02/2020

2/25/1970 President and Mrs. Nixon with French President Georges Pompidou and Madame Pompidou at the French embassy in Washington, DC. (Image: WHPO-3036-14)

08/02/2020

Interim President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Juan Guaidó signs the guest book, at the Department of State in Washington, D.C., on February 6, 2020. [State Department Photo by Ron Przysucha/ Public Domain]

in Paris, France, July 2017
08/02/2020

in Paris, France, July 2017

Month - 07/13/2017, Melania Trump in .
📷: White House, Andrea Hanks.

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About #USDiplomaticHistory

This is a research and reference page to capture current photos, news, and postings in the field of:

U.S. Diplomatic History

a.k.a. American Foreign Relations History

a.k.a. History of “America and the World”