The "offered hand" is reluctant fist ?

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The "offered hand" is reluctant fist = The "offered hand" is probably reluctant fist?

What is the grammar?

(In my ears, the "offered hand" is a helping hand: you'd like to help, do you? No reluctance here thereof)

Context:

"In crucial things. unity" and this, my friends, is crucial.

To the world, too, we offer new engagement and a renewed vow: We will stay strong to protect the peace. The "offered hand" is reluctant fist; but Once made, strong, and can be used with great effect.

More:

http://prop1.org/inaugur/89bush/890120b1.htm

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Type: Question • Score: 3 • Views: 716 • Replies: 7

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@oristarA,

Sure it's not "fist" but "first"?

I can't open your url.

2 Replies

@dlowan,

The offered hand can be reluctant...it's not a yes/no situation. The hand is offered in peace, I think, not to help.....and if it really is fist, I think it is saying that, because of previous ill-feeling and sense of threat, the hand being offered in peace at first resembles a fist. That is, the country offering the hand is going to make sure it remains strongly armed...but that time may improve the sense of trust.

(Sounds like propaganda to me!)

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@dlowan,

George H. W. Bush's inaugural speech:

Quote:

To the world, too, we offer new engagement and a renewed vow: We will stay strong to protect the peace. The "offered hand" is a reluctant fist; but once made, strong, and can be used with great effect. There are today Americans who are held against their will in foreign lands, and Americans who are unaccounted for. Assistance can be shown here, and will be long remembered. Good will begets good will. Good faith can be a spiral that endlessly moves on.

http://www.nationalcenter.org/BushInaugural.html

1 Reply

@dlowan,

dlowan wrote:

Sure it's not "fist" but "first"?

I can't open your url.

http://prop1.org/inaugur/89bush/890120b1.htm

1 Reply

@oristarA,

I can't open your url.

0 Replies

@dlowan,

dlowan wrote:

The offered hand can be reluctant...it's not a yes/no situation. The hand is offered in peace, I think, not to help.....and if it really is fist, I think it is saying that, because of previous ill-feeling and sense of threat, the hand being offered in peace at first resembles a fist. That is, the country offering the hand is going to make sure it remains strongly armed...but that time may improve the sense of trust.

(Sounds like propaganda to me!)

Good point. Thank you.

0 Replies

@tsarstepan,

In the time before the Soviet Union fell, I believe its a foreign policy statement that says the US will help other countries whenever it can but the US is still capable of defending itself and its interests if need be.

Kind of his version of "Speak softly but carry a big stick" being a call for diplomacy but indicating a strong will to act militarily whenever necessary.

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The "offered hand" is reluctant fist ?

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