“Diplomacy is the same as saying "nice doggie" until you have a chance to pick up a rock.”
Attributed to Francis Rodman, in volume 64 of The Reader's digest (1954)
Other variants also attributed to Wynn Catlin in Kiss Me Hardy : Quotations Ancient and (Very) Modern (1982) by Roger Kilroy; and to Winston Churchill by Dick Applegate in a speech reprinted in Volume 75 of "The Carpenter" (1955)
Misattributed
Interviewed as part of panel discussion — [Andrew, Lih, w:Andrew Lih, Wikimania 2009, Wikimedia Foundation, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:200908281410-Andrew Lih-Challenges of Covering the Wikimedia Community.ogv, October 30, 2014, Challenges of Covering the Wikimedia Community, August 28, 2009]
Press conference http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_1_35/ai_54259243 regarding the use of force to gain compliance from Saddam Hussein (24 February 1998)
From Diplomacy and Art http://diplomatartist.com/diplomacy-art/, a contributer article for Diplomat Artist, October 10, 2015
“Not all the arts of diplomacy are learned solely in its practice. There are other exercise yards.”
Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department (1969), State Department Management, Leadership Perspectives
“Diplomacy is thinking twice before saying nothing. ”
