Hearts And Minds Quotes
Nixon staff assistant Chuck Coulson used a variant of this quotation. See {628753}.
The “Boxer Rebellion” was a very strong, populist, violent movement in China at the turn of the Century. The hostility was not directed against the Empress or the Government, but against the non-Chinese foreigners who were, theoretically and by treaty, under the protection of the Chinese Government. Cixi and the government had to decide to Crack Down on the Boxers, Support them, or remain passive. The movement was so strong and the government so weak, that is was not clear that the government could prevail in what would amount to a civil war. The Empress in effect vetoed the crackdown option on the grounds stated. With this quotation she made a fateful decision for China and the Foreigners and for her own legacy. She had been considered by Westerners one of the great rulers of the world of not of all time, and she was in many ways. But she made the wrong choice from the Western point of view; thousands of Westerners became casualties of the Boxer irrational xenophobic violence with the government doing little to stop it. Soon, she herself came to regret this policy decision--{641730}.
This was King’s first appearance on the nation’s most prestigious news show.
The British, despite Clinton’s correct perception of its importance, could not capture the “hearts and minds” of the American colonists. The importance of the quotation lies in the fact that it appears to be the first time the phrase was used in a political context. Click http://politicalquotes.org/search/node/Hearts%20and%20Minds to see other, later, political quotations that use the phrase. See especially {628753} which became one of the most famous quotations to come out of the Vietnam War.
