Has anyone else noticed the frequency of which international gift giving has come up in the last couple of months? So far, we've given Russia a plastic 'redo' button, that actually had the wrong inscription on it, we've returned a bust of Winston Churchill to England, because President Obama wanted to put a Lincoln bust there instead, and we've given the Queen of England an iPod. Most recently, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave President Obama a book entitled, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. This book blames the United States for unjust actions in Latin American countries, yet according to Fox News, President Obama said, "it was a nice gesture".
Obviously gift giving is small compared to issues like the President's polices on the Iraq and Afghanistan, but if we can't get the small stuff like, like protocol, is there much hope that we'll be able to maintain successful foreign relationships?
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