A Slip of the Tongue Leads to Obama's Verbal 'Bomb'

In today’s highly developed media landscape, political leaders must exercise special caution when they open their mouth to speak. An accidental slip of the tongue could become a widely circulated joke, but a more serious verbal blunder could lead to a political crisis. Many remember when U.S. President Barack Obama incorrectly recited the presidential oath, which consists of only 35 short words, back in January 2009 during his first inauguration. Fortunately, his second inauguration this January went smoothly. However, on the stage of international politics, an endless number of verbal gaffes still occur.

Politicians Who Are Not up to Speed on Their Geography

Wen Wei Po reported that on Feb. 20, new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made his first public speech after taking office at the University of Virginia and spoke of developing democratic institutions in “Kyrzakhstan.” The unfamiliar country name caused confusion. Only after checking the U.S. Deparment of State-issued transcript of the speech, did people realize that Kerry meant to say Kyrgyzstan. It appears he confused Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, two different countries. Before becoming secretary of state, Kerry served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for many years and also acted as committee chairman; such a gaffe is truly puzzling coming from someone we can regard as a diplomatic veteran.

In fact, among U.S. politicians, Kerry is not the only one to flub the names of foreign places. This trend may be related to a lack of attention to geography, starting from a young age, among Americans. National Geographic magazine conducted a survey and discovered that half of Americans could not find New York on a map, while 63 percent could not locate Iraq, a country the U.S. military was waging war against at the time [in 2006]. The number of people who could not locate Afghanistan was even higher at 90 percent.

Even Obama, famous as the “high-IQ” president, has made geographical blunders. In April 2012, when he attended the Summit of the Americas, a dispute arose between Argentina and the U.K. over the ownership of the Malvinas Islands (British Falkland Islands). Obama expressed the neutral position of the U.S. on this issue. Perhaps to convey friendliness toward Argentina, he tried to refer to the islands using their Argentinean name, Malvinas. Unfortunately, he misspoke, instead calling them the Maldives Islands, a nation in the Indian Ocean and former British colony. This slip of the tongue can be described as shooting oneself in the foot: It caused the Argentinians even greater displeasure.

Compared to Americans, the French flaunt themselves as “cultured.” However, France’s leader has also made a “geography gaffe”; the error even involved a place in his own country. In January 2011, then President Nicolas Sarkozy visited the town of Truchtersheim in France’s Alsace region, located only 30 kilometers from the France-Germany border. In a speech to representatives of France’s agricultural sector, Sarkozy said that he would not accept unfair competition between Germany and France.

“I’m not saying that simply because I’m in Germany,” he added. Realizing his error, Sarkozy quickly corrected himself, “I am in Alsace.”

However, the audience had already been stirred to anger and began booing loudly. Sarkozy had to interrupt his speech and raise his hands in the air as if to surrender.

Annexed twice by Germany and returned to France only after World War II, the Alsace region has long been a contended strategic location between France and Germany. To whom the region belongs is an especially sensitive issue for the residents of Alsace.

After the speech, the media concluded that, in French, the pronunciations of Germany and Alsace are similar, so Sarkozy most likely only made a slip of the tongue and did not show ignorance of history. Nevertheless, he still offended the locals.

Wrong Names Offend People

Even worse than geographical errors are those involving someone’s name.

Regarded as the 20th century’s greatest spiritual teacher and success guru, American writer Dale Carnegie once said, “One of the simplest, most obvious and most important ways of gaining good will [is] by remembering names.”

But it seems Obama has not read Carnegie’s book.

In November 2012, during his visit to Myanmar, Obama declared the country’s “importance,” yet he still did not do his homework. While meeting with Myanmar President Thein Sein, Obama called him “President Sein,” following the Western custom of using the “latter” name in formal address. In fact, “President Thein Sein” would have been the appropriate title. When meeting Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Obama gave her an American-style affectionate kiss, but during a subsequent news conference, he mispronounced her name several times as “Aung Yan Suu Kyi,” making Suu Kyi, who stood beside Obama, rather embarrassed. The U.S. media pronounced that Obama’s errors would generate unease among the Burmese and cause them to wonder if the U.S. president really placed that much importance on their country.

Of course, mispronouncing names is not a patented American trait. In June 2010, at the G-8 Summit held in Canada, Naoto Kan, Japanese prime minister at the time, successively mispronounced the names of then South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, both of whom he had met previously. He also substituted the English phrase “emerging companies” for “emerging countries” and erroneously said G-7 instead of G-8. Obama, who also attended the summit, could not even say Naoto’s name and simply referred to him as “the new prime minister.” Interestingly, two years later, in December 2012, newly elected Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe spoke with Obama on the phone and, afterward, unexpectedly told the person next to him that he had been speaking with U.S. President George W. Bush. Although he immediately corrected his mistake, Abe still attracted media ridicule.

No matter how good relations may be between two allied countries, the mispronunciation of a leader’s name will lead to unhappiness.

On Feb. 6 of this year, the 12th summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was held in Cairo, Egypt. During the opening ceremony, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi congratulated Palestine on its newly granted United Nations observer status and said that the Palestinian issue was the “central issue” of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. He called upon all member countries to support the establishment of a completely sovereign and independent Palestinian state. Subsequently, President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas delivered a speech expressing his thanks. Abbas opened his address with “President Mohamed Hosni,” but realized his mistake right away. After a short pause, he corrected himself and readdressed “President Mohamed Morsi.” The media observed that although Morsi looked calm, the subtle movement of his mouth seemed to imply the displeasure in his heart. It’s no wonder [he was displeased with himself]; the full name of the overthrown former President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, is Mohamed Hosni Mubarak.

Mistakes Often Arise When Touching upon History

Many politicians enjoy citing historical events during their speeches, but errors come easily if they are not careful.

In 2010, British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the U.S. To show the importance of friendly Anglo-American relations, in an interview, Cameron emphasized the cooperation between the two countries during World War II.

“We were the junior partner in 1940 when we were fighting the Nazis,” he said.

In reality, although the U.S. continuously supported Britain during World War II, it did not officially enter the war until 1941. France’s earlier defeat had left Britain to fight bravely alone while suffering huge losses, so the British have always been extremely proud of this period in their history. Cameron’s words angered the British public, with many believing that Cameron was attempting to curry favor with the U.S. and had forgotten his own country’s history. A British major general declared, “I am quite sure if Winston Churchill were alive today, he would be dismayed.” Faced with public pressure, the prime minister’s office could only feign ignorance and claim that Cameron meant to say the 1940s, not 1940.

Some Leaders Find Themselves Misrepresenting Historical References and Must Apologize

On May 29, 2012, Obama held a ceremony at the White House to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the late Jan Karski in recognition of his historical achievements: Karski was a Polish-American who first exposed the atrocities of the Holocaust. Obama said Karski personally went to “the Warsaw Ghetto and a Polish death camp” and witnessed the massacre. Obama’s use of the term “Polish death camp” immediately provoked strong protests in Poland. The Polish government believed that Obama’s wording would cause people to think that Poland was responsible for the Holocaust. The correct reference should have been to “German concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Poland.”

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski publicly stated on the Internet that the White House should apologize for this “outrageous error.” The Polish Embassy in the U.S. also published guidelines on its website on how to correct the term “Polish death camp,” adding, “We cannot allow history to be distorted.” Polish President Komorowski said that Obama’s words “do not reflect views or intentions of our American friend,” but maintained that his choice of words was “unfair and painful.” Komorowski also sent a letter to Obama, who later replied, “I regret the error.”

In some cases, when politicians talk about their own experiences and a slip of the tongue occurs, these errors are more than likely intentional. During the U.S. presidential election in 2008, when Hillary Clinton was seeking her party’s nomination, she boasted about her visit to Bosnia in 1996 as first lady: “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”

The statement was meant to showcase her courageous dash in the nation’s interests. But later, when the U.S. media played back the video of the visit, Hillary could be seen laughing at the airport; there was no sign of her dodging a sniper attack. The facts caused her great embarrassment.

In 2009, when Hillary became secretary of state, she once again told a “tale.” When visiting Belfast in Northern Ireland, she claimed in a speech that when she had visited the city in 1995, she had witnessed her hotel’s renovated appearance following a bomb attack. However, when local media investigated her story, they found that restorations had been completed by 1994, so it would have been impossible for her to have seen what she claimed.

Politically Incorrect Statements Incite Close Scrutiny

Among the variety of gaffes, politically inappropriate remarks are the most likely to cause trouble. In 2006, then Senator John Kerry, D-Mass., made a speech at a university in California.

“If you make the most of it and you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq,” he said to the students. Kerry had wanted to be humorous, but as soon as he made the remarks, Republicans quickly seized on the opportunity, saying Kerry had insulted the troops in Iraq. Some Democrats demanded that Kerry apologize for his comments.

While a slip of the tongue can involve sensitive terms, it can also attract media attention.

On Jan. 19 of this year, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden attended an Iowa event at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

“I’m proud to be president of the United States,” he said.

The audience laughed. Biden’s son Beau, attorney general of Delaware, quickly called the gaffe to his father’s attention. Biden corrected himself, “I’m proud to be vice president of the United States, but I am prouder to be Barack Obama’s, President Barack Obama’s, vice president.” Since Biden has hinted that he is considering running in the next presidential election, his mistake triggered speculation in the media as to whether Biden had let slip what was on his mind accidentally.

The “Luckiest” Verbal Blunders Are Those that Listeners Do Not Hear

In March 2009, then Russian President Medvedev visited Spain. During his welcoming remarks, the Spanish prime minister at the time, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, spoke of cooperation between their two countries, when he accidentally substituted the Spanish word for “support” with an obscenity. Fortunately, the on-site interpreter reacted quickly and did not translate the prime minister’s original reference. Medvedev and the foreign reporters, none of whom could understand Spanish, did not realize what had happened and continued listening happily, while the local Spanish reporters who heard the gaffe were scared into a cold sweat.

A slip of the tongue is a mistake that happens during oral communication. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language defines it as “an involuntary departure from the speaker’s intended production of a sequence of language units, which are very common. Sounds, syllables, morphemes, words and sometimes larger units of grammar can be affected. Often, the deviant performance is immediately detected by the speaker (though not always consciously) and corrected.” In general, all people make verbal errors as they converse. Politicians are also people; slips of the tongue are inevitable. However, politicians who work on strengthening all aspects of their personal cultivation, including psychological qualities, intellect and eloquence, can lessen the incidence of these verbal errors. Of course, politicians with a resourceful assistant at their side can also reduce the embarrassment caused by slips of the tongue.