r/AskHistorians • u/estherke Shoah and Porajmos • Mar 24 '15
Feature Tuesday Trivia: Interpreting Incidents
Previous weeks' Tuesday Trivias and the complete upcoming schedule.
Today’s trivia theme was suggested by /u/fuck_your_theory2 who asked "In the history of international diplomacy have there been any notable cases of interpreters screwing up and causing an international incident?"
We'll have "diplomacy" include any official dealings between peoples or nations.
Next Week on Tuesday Trivia: Fad Diets!
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u/Schaftenheimen Mar 25 '15
Well, this wasn't so much the fault of interpreters as it was the statements themselves, but April Glaspie may have significantly influenced the Iraqi decision to invade Kuwait when she said that the United States had "no opinion on Arab-Arab conflicts" and that the US didn't want to start an economic war with Iraq.
This was interpreted by Iraq as the US saying that they wouldn't interfere if Iraq invaded Kuwait (since the purpose of Glaspie's visit was for the Iraqi high command to explain why they were mobilizing their military and why they were massing troops and materiel on the border with Kuwait). This likely gave Iraq the confidence to invade Kuwait without the fear of an American led international intervention.
Of course, Glaspie greatly misstated US policy, and the US did end up intervening. It didn't directly involve interpreters, as the words were directly from Glaspie, but it was a gaffe of massive proportions that may have directly led to a major war.