Tone is the hardest thing to get right.
The first 100 days George W. Bush is in the process of finding out. As a youthful candidate who wanted to be taken seriously despite his inexperience in foreign affairs, he struck a tough-guy pose, compensating for shallow knowledge by adopting the combative tone of a cold warrior. Last week President Bush found himself addressing both those countries for real, and the words and gestures he used seemed designed to show that the candidate hadn't been kidding. In talks with China's Vice Premier, Qian Qichen, he bluntly said Washington would sell whatever arms it chose to Taiwan, whether Beijing liked it or not. Bush and his advisers seemed downright eager to prove there's a new sheriff in town, ready to take a more hawkish, assertive posture on foreign policy.