Anyone who has ever worked in diplomacy knows gifts are kind of a big deal. During high level visits, some poor soul at the embassy gets assigned “gift officer” duty. That persons job is to register and accept gifts on behalf of the official (unless the gift is to be given publicly), draft “thank you” letters (that are generally at least skimmed and personally signed by the official), and present return gifts. No one wants to be presented something without having something prepared to give in return. These things generally go flawlessly.
Even lower ranking diplomats can sometimes be presented gifts. Generally they’re considered property of the U.S. government, but the guys in the ethics department of the legal bureau may allow you to buy the gift for yourself from the U.S. government at the fair market value.
It was unfortunate and a bit strange then, that there were two faux pas involving U.S. gifts in one day. Secretary Clinton wanted to present a “reset button” to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Unfortunately, the button instead had the Russian word for “overcharge” written on it. The error went unnoticed until Secretary Clinton sat down with Lavrov and had the following exchange:
Clinton: “We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?”
Lavrov: “You got it wrong.”
Meanwhile, across an ocean, the Daily Mail reported that President Obama presented British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a collection of twenty-five DVDs of American classic films. I love America, and I love film, so I think that’s actually a pretty nice gift. The problem is that the Prime Minister brought a much more expensive (ok, better) gift, “an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet [the sister ship of the HMS Resolute, that provided the wood for a desk that has sat in the Oval Office for 200 years].” This is sort of like exchanging Christmas gifts and discovering that your wife gave you a watch and you gave her a CD–awkward. I presume the White House protocol office has some “gift officer” in charge of making sure that gifts are properly reciprocated, so I’m not sure what happened.
In any case, Politico reports that the Russian button said “reset” before the afternoon press conference, and I’m sure the “special relationship” between Britain and the U.S. will continue. I’m just glad I wasn’t the poor control officer for either event.
Update: Laura Rosen looks into who mistranslated the Russian button. I smell a cover up. Click here to read her investigation.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hah! That is both embarrassing and hilarious.
I was thankfully raised in a family that understands gifting culture, and when meeting someone new, etc, I always try to bring something (and recently, when I left DC to go back to Korea, I brought something for my final meal with Marc’s family, as thanks for the help they gave me while in DC). It amazes me how many people don’t understand this simple concept and what a difference it can make.
Then again, I have seen within my own family something go wrong similar to what happened with Obama. Now, my parents tend to both confide in me what they are getting the other. One year, my mother spent quite a bit of money getting my father a really nice chair for our office at home, since he has back problems. I estimate it was probably about $800. My dad, on the other hand, got my mom a new laptop, which was $1200. My mother had specifically gotten him something really nice not only because he would appreciate it, but because he had always given her a nicer gift than she gave him, because of their salary differences, and she wanted to change that, if only once. It drove me insane knowing that when it came time to open gifts, my mother would likely actually be upset by my father’s “better” gift, and indeed, she was, to a degree.
Sorry to hijack your post with a personal story, but it is always amazing to me how diplomatic concepts can apply in normal life as well as the government.
Interesting bit about the button. What kind of button are we talking about? Seems odd.
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