Not entirely true. When bowing as a form of a polite greeting one maintains eye contact, when eye contact is not maintained it is a sign of subservience and weakness.
Better watch out, he did give eminent domain to the Chinese.....And there are foreign troops from nearly every nation in the UN currently stationed here and training here and there have been for over thirty years. You don't expect the national guard and reserve to man those death camps here do you?
culture, customs, attitudes, and ways of thinking are not universal, folks, so let's not apply the filter and biases of our own culture when looking at another.
This is incorrect. In Japan, maintaining eye contact while bowing shows the other person that you consider them an enemy. Bowing here in Japan as a greeting is not about showing "subservience and weakness". It is about showing trust, respect, and a lack of Ego (something Western, and especially American, society could use a whole lot LESS of)to the person you are greeting.
American
In the State Department protocol manuals that I and every other person who grew up in a diplomatic family were required to read and learn. It is long established protocol, (about 200 years worth) that Americans bow to no one. When I was a kid, and later an adult working for the USDS, it was made abundantly clear what protocol was to be followed. Apparently, the new USDS, under Clinton allows these rules to be ignored in the name of political correctness and subservience to other nations customs.
Right, because the state department IS reliable. They've never lied to cover up an agenda or anything. It was covered extensively on XM satellite radio at the time too.
Nope. They are actual dead tree books that used to be used. They were handed out to all diplomatic families so we would know what to do when the time came. Bowing to foreign heads of state was covered. It was, for almost 200 years a no no that dated back to the post Revolution period. American had to bow to a King once and we'd never do it again. I bet they still have them at Foggy Bottom in the FSO lounge. Then again, Hillary could have had them all burned.
