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"Although used before his presidency, Roosevelt used military muscle several times throughout his two terms with a more subtle touch to complement his diplomatic policies and enforcing the Most historians, such as one of Roosevelt's many biographers The U.S. used the "big stick" during "Canal Diplomacy", the questionable diplomatic actions of the U.S. during the pursuit of a canal across With Platt Amendment in place, Roosevelt pulled the troops out of Cuba.
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The Just at the moment I am so angry with that infernal little Cuban republic that I would like to wipe its people off the face of the earth. This action was met with public unrest and outcries for annexation, with reasons ranging from "U.S. interests" to "dominant white race".





This article was most recently revised and updated by Virtually any topic for the virtual learner. If a nation does not in this sense speak softly, then sooner or later the policy of the big stick is certain to result in war. Roosevelt described his style of foreign policy as "the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis."



While President McKinley ushered in the era of the American empire through military strength and economic coercion, his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, established a new foreign policy approach, allegedly based on a favorite African proverb, “speak softly, and … Persistently the effort has been made to insist that those who advocate keeping our country able to defend its rights are merely adopting ‘the policy of the big stick.’ In reality, we lay equal emphasis on the fact that it is necessary to speak softly; in other words, that it is necessary to be respectful toward all people and scrupulously to refrain from wronging them, while at the same time keeping ourselves in condition to prevent wrong being done to us. La doctrine du Big Stick est une expression qui renvoie à la politique étrangère menée par le président Theodore Roosevelt au début du XXe siècle et visant à faire assumer aux États-Unis une place de véritable police internationale.

Simultaneously threatening with the "big stick", or the military, ties in heavily with the idea of I have always been fond of the West African proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.














But what befell Luxembourg six weeks ago, what has befallen China again and again during the past quarter of a century shows that no amount of speaking softly will save any people which does not carry a big stick. An avid hunter, Roosevelt used the rifle to hunt elephants, rhinoceros, buffalo, and other big game on a year-long safari in Africa. As practiced by Roosevelt, big stick diplomacy had five components. Roosevelt to White, Sept. 13, 1906, Roosevelt Papers, Library of Congress





The idea is negotiating peacefully but also having strength in case things go wrong. Earlier, in a letter to a friend, while he was still the governor of One of the main lessons to learn from this war is embodied in the homely proverb, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Persistently only half of this proverb has been quoted in deriding the men who wish to safeguard our national interest and honor.